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Question #131953

Difficulty: 8/10 | 🟢 Free

The Question

Given below are two statements: one is labelled as Assertion (A) and the other is labelled as Reason (R).

Assertion (A): The accidental leakage of engineered Agrobacterium tumefaciens from a bioreactor into the soil poses a severe biosafety risk, even if susceptible dicot plants are completely absent in the vicinity. Reason (R): Although T-DNA transfer to plant cells strictly requires induction by plant-derived phenolic compounds, the engineered plasmids carrying antibiotic resistance markers can spread to diverse soil microbes via horizontal gene transfer.

In the light of the above statements, choose the most appropriate answer from the options given below:

Options

A.
Both (A) and (R) are true and (R) is the correct explanation of (A).
B.
Both (A) and (R) are true but (R) is not the correct explanation of (A).
C.
(A) is true but (R) is false.
D.
(A) is false but (R) is true.

Check Your Answer

Correct Answer

Step-by-Step Solution

Explanation

How the Examiner Thinks

Evolutionary_Exception

Tackle problems where standard rules evolve or change based on specific environmental constraints.

Concepts Behind This Question

Bioreactor Geometry|Agrobacterium Tumefaciens Mechanism|Biopiracy and Patents

Why This Question Is Tricky

Examiner Levers

Logical Assertion

Tests the causal relationship between two true statements.

Difficulty Boost : +4

Common Mistakes

Conceptual Pivot: Students often conflate the mechanism of T-DNA transfer to plants (which strictly requires acetosyringone/dicot exudates) with bacterial conjugation (Horizontal Gene Transfer).

The trap is assuming Agrobacterium is ecologically harmless in the soil without dicot plants, ignoring the evolutionary risk of antibiotic resistance marker leakage to other rhizosphere bacteria.

Quick Facts About This Question

Question Information

Subject	Biology
Chapter	Biotechnology : Principles and Processes - Class 12
Concept	Bioreactor Geometry
Difficulty	8
Cognitive Load	5
Target Solve Time	120 sec
Access	Free