Question

3. A big company has hired you to find a way to keep alive their water lily population. Through your studies, you have discovered a new biochemical pathway! The pathway is depicted below (6.0 pts).

Waterase Stemase Padase

WATER ----------> STEM ----------> LILYPAD ----------> FLOWER

In this pathway, the precursor WATER is taken up by Water Lilies and is converted to the final product FLOWER. WATER is converted to STEM by the enzyme, waterase. The enzyme stemase then converts STEM to LILYPAD and the final enzyme in the pathway, padase, converts LILYPAD to FLOWER. Water lilies that have a ‘loss-of-function mutation’ (lf) for the genes that encode either waterase, stemase or padase cannot convert WATER to FLOWER and cannot survive on WATER alone, whereas normal water lilies can survive with only WATER. Decide if the following statements are true or false and explain your decision.

Water lilies mutant (lf) for padase can survive if given the intermediate LILYPAD.

Water lilies mutant (lf) for waterase can survive if given the intermediate STEM.

Water lilies mutant (lf) for both waterase and stemase can survive if given the intermediate STEM.