Science Toolkit The Guilty Dentist hile biologists use the study of evolutionary relationships mainly to build evolutionary trees of the world's organisms, scientists are finding wider and wider uses for evolutionary entists have even used evolutionary trees to solve the mystery ra dentist infected his patients with HIV, the virus that causes immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) in humans. ntist, who was himself infected with HIV, had been working, as h his patients. Then some of his patients began turning up HIV- gainst a backdrop of increasing public controversy over whether e workers with HIV pose a risk to their patients, many people know: had this dentist transmitted the deadly virus to his Adding confusion to the situation was the fact that some of the atients had lifestyles or at put them at risk for tion by other means. oth sides of the issue- g the dentist should not others saying he was a gued heatedly without to answer the question, s took advantage of the on that HIV's genetic ce that of most viruses, ckly, resulting in many t closely related strains e researchers created African Patient Patient person X Y his patients, then the strains of HIV found in his patients should be more closely related to his strain and less closely related to the strains from other infected people. The results showed that some of the dentist's patients probably were infected by him and that some probably were not. Two patients, X and Y, who could have been exposed to HIV as a result of their lifestyles or habits, had HIV strains that were not closely related to the dentist's strain. However, five other patients-A, B, C, D, and E-were carrying strains of the virus very closely related to the strain in the dentist. Moreover, those people were not at risk of contracting HIV by other means. So the scientists concluded that, at least in the case of these five patients, the dentist had infected them with his strain of the virus. Local non- patient 1 Local non- patient 2 Local non- Local non- patient 3 patient 4 Y K nary tree of the viral d in the dentist, in each ed patients, and in local An Evolutionary Tree Solves the Whodunit were also infected with Patient Patient Patient Dentist Patient Patient D
Science Toolkit The Guilty Dentist hile biologists use the study of evolutionary relationships mainly to build evolutionary trees of the world's organisms, scientists are finding wider and wider uses for evolutionary entists have even used evolutionary trees to solve the mystery ra dentist infected his patients with HIV, the virus that causes immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) in humans. ntist, who was himself infected with HIV, had been working, as h his patients. Then some of his patients began turning up HIV- gainst a backdrop of increasing public controversy over whether e workers with HIV pose a risk to their patients, many people know: had this dentist transmitted the deadly virus to his Adding confusion to the situation was the fact that some of the atients had lifestyles or at put them at risk for tion by other means. oth sides of the issue- g the dentist should not others saying he was a gued heatedly without to answer the question, s took advantage of the on that HIV's genetic ce that of most viruses, ckly, resulting in many t closely related strains e researchers created African Patient Patient person X Y his patients, then the strains of HIV found in his patients should be more closely related to his strain and less closely related to the strains from other infected people. The results showed that some of the dentist's patients probably were infected by him and that some probably were not. Two patients, X and Y, who could have been exposed to HIV as a result of their lifestyles or habits, had HIV strains that were not closely related to the dentist's strain. However, five other patients-A, B, C, D, and E-were carrying strains of the virus very closely related to the strain in the dentist. Moreover, those people were not at risk of contracting HIV by other means. So the scientists concluded that, at least in the case of these five patients, the dentist had infected them with his strain of the virus. Local non- patient 1 Local non- patient 2 Local non- Local non- patient 3 patient 4 Y K nary tree of the viral d in the dentist, in each ed patients, and in local An Evolutionary Tree Solves the Whodunit were also infected with Patient Patient Patient Dentist Patient Patient D
Chapter1: The Science Of Biology
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Read the Guilty dentist information. Then use your understanding to answer the following question:
What was the conclusion?
Transcribed Image Text:Science Toolkit
The Guilty Dentist
W
hile biologists use the study of evolutionary relationships
mainly to build evolutionary trees of the world's organisms,
scientists are finding wider and wider uses for evolutionary
trees. Scientists have even used evolutionary trees to solve the mystery
of whether a dentist infected his patients with HIV, the virus that causes
acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) in humans.
The dentist, who was himself infected with HIV, had been working, as
usual, with his patients. Then some of his patients began turning up HIV-
positive. Against a backdrop of increasing public controversy over whether
health care workers with HIV pose a risk to their patients, many people
wanted to know: had this dentist transmitted the deadly virus to his
patients? Adding confusion to the situation was the fact that some of the
infected patients had lifestyles or
habits that put them at risk for
HIV infection by other means.
Those on both sides of the issue-
some saying the dentist should not
be blamed, others saying he was a
threat-argued heatedly without
resolution.
In order to answer the question,
researchers took advantage of the
observation that HIV's genetic
material, like that of most viruses,
evolves quickly, resulting in many
different but closely related strains
of HIV. The researchers created
an evolutionary tree of the viral
strains found in the dentist, in each
of the infected patients, and in local
people who were also infected with
HIV but were not patients of the
dentist. If the dentist had infected
African Patient
person X
Patient Local non-
Y patient 1
his patients, then the strains of HIV found in his patients should be more
closely related to his strain and less closely related to the strains from
other infected people.
The results showed that some of the dentist's patients probably were
infected by him and that some probably were not. Two patients, X and
Y, who could have been exposed to HIV as a result of their lifestyles or
habits, had HIV strains that were not closely related to the dentist's
strain. However, five other patients-A, B, C, D, and E-were carrying
strains of the virus very closely related to the strain in the dentist.
Moreover, those people were not at risk of contracting HIV by other
means. So the scientists concluded that, at least in the case of these five
patients, the dentist had infected them with his strain of the virus.
Local non-
patient 2
Local non- Local non-
patient 3
patient 4
Patient Patient Patient Dentist
A
C
An Evolutionary Tree Solves the Whodunit
By examining the evolutionary relationships among the strains of HIV found in a number of infected people,
including a dentist and his infected patients, researchers were able to solve the mystery of how his
patients were likely to have been infected.
unearthed in 1923 the idea that it might be sittin las lushes that lett
Patient Patient
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