Where the heck can I learn about bacterial genetics?

[wcec]

i was ecstatic to get my '99 HY Cell & Molec Bio in the mail yesterday. It looks awesome and i can't wait to dive into it. Unfortunately, a brief skim showed me that bacterial genetics was nowhere to be found (oriT, tra, conjugative & nonconjugative plasmids, etc.).

i feel like i've searched everywhere, with Clinical Micro Made Ridiculously Simple having some info, but the chapter on bacterial genetics just doesn't seem like nearly enough detail. Can anyone help me out, please?

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[Instatewaiter]

outside of what is in MMRS, FA or HY cell and molec, the other stuff in bacterial genetics isnt very high yeild. From those sources you should be able to anwer correctly around 80-90% of questions correctly.

 

[Tristy]

I'm also having trouble with that area.... All I can suggest to add to what previous posters said, are the UW explanations for these type of questions. Maybe Kaplan too, but I don't remember if I've seen good exp there. Definitely in UW.


PS: Lippi's Biochem has some stuff on the stupid lac operon as well.

 

[rvca1981]

outside of what is in MMRS, FA or HY cell and molec, the other stuff in bacterial genetics isnt very high yeild. From those sources you should be able to anwer correctly around 80-90% of questions correctly.

i definitely agree with this. Not that high yield and concepts tested are pretty straightforward.

 

[osli]

HY CMB's explanation of the lac operon is easier to follow than that in Lippincott biochem, though the latter is more complete.

Kaplan QBank, as much as I despised it, had plenty of questions on bacterial genetics if you happen to be using it.

CMMRS has the one short chapter, and then a few other scattered tidbits throughout (mostly in the charts, showing how virulence factors are acquired).

FA has the BCDE mnemonic, which was enough to answer the one question about this I had on my USMLE. From the style of USMLE questions, it is likely that if you understand transformation, conjugation, etc. that you will be able to answer any question you might get. Knowing what bug does what (past the BCDE mentioned above, and maybe that strep pneumo transforms) is unlikely to be asked; the question would more likely be some description of a lab experiment and outcomes asking if you know what mechanism of transfer was responsible or something similar.

 

[Helo]

i think kaplan had some stuff on it which was probably useful. as many mentioned, in the end it wasnt all that high yield because the genetics questions i got on the real deal simply tested ur ability to apply information presented to you within the stem. these are some of the easiest questions you can get on your test, but be aware that the stems can be long with large, scary looking pictures - do not be intimidated! the clues are given to you, just take a deep breath and try to understand exactly what they are asking you.

 

[car123]

How many lines on average are these "long" stems?

 

[UnderdogMD]

Might be a dumb question but is there something special about the '99 HY? I've heard other people mention that year too.

 

[Helo]

i used the newer cell molec book and it was ok, tons of excess detail...

couple of my stems were the entire screen length, others about 6-7 lines plus a picture. not terribly long, but longer than what i was used to

 

[osli]

I had some "long stem" questions that were 6-8 lines, then a block of labs, then another 2-3 lines. A few had a picture to the side that took up part of the screen width, so the stem might have been closer to 20 lines total with labs and everything.

I also had plenty that were barely two lines. Very straight forward one-step questions. It seemed to me that my first block and fourth block had more longish questions, and time was a little tighter for those blocks. The majority of my blocks felt very much like UWorld in length, and I finished with the same amount of time that I typically had in UWorld.

So I think the longest USMLE questions are longer, which certainly stands out both during the test and in your memory. But I'd say those very long questions do not represent that majority of the test, and you'll probably only get a block or three where there are enough to make a significant difference in how much time you have left.

 

[Helo]

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