Antibiotic Resistance

The development of antibiotics was an important advancement in 20th century medicine. Previously deadly infectious diseases are now routinely treated with antibiotics. Moreover, for modern-day medical procedures such as chemotherapy treatment to be successful, antibiotic use is necessary. For these reasons, the prospect of bacteria developing widespread resistance to antibiotics is a major concern as it would render many modern-day medical therapies unviable.

Many pathogenic bacteria species are becoming resistant to antibiotic. Explain how such adaptations can develop through the process of natural selection.

Most of the ill-causing bacteria will be killed but the ones that don’t die, carry a gene or genes that allows them to withstand the antibiotic. These bacteria are better adapted to deal with the antibiotic. This adaptation will become stronger as it is passed. When these bacteria reproduce, they will pass the genes on to the next generation and the next generation bacteria better adapted against the antibiotic. The more they reproduce, the more antibiotic resistant bacteria will be in the individual eventually becoming totally resistant. This is an example of directional selection in the natural selection process. The bacteria with the resistant genes would become the favored extreme phenotype.

When non-resistant bacteria are exposed to an antibiotic, most of them die. But due to the increase of mutations some of the bacteria are becoming resistance to the antibiotic. The bacteria are all subject to natural selection. Natural selection is as simple as saying that the bacteria that have not developed a mutation or resistance that helps them to survive die. The ones that do, survive and pass on the mutation to the next generation. This means that we are constantly having to adapt our antibiotics because so much of the mutation is getting passed along. The flu vaccination is a good example of how mutations are carried over and how the vaccine had to be changed every year to fight the ever changing virus. Some strains

Antibiotic resistance evolves in bacteria. Charles Darwin created the theory of evolution which focused on natural selection being the key factor of how things change. Natural selection is when organisms that are better suited to the environment are able to reproduce successfully. Evolution is descent with modification. Bacteria can become resistant to antibiotics by a mutation. The bacteria that did not die from the antibiotic inherited the gene from an ancestor that made it resistant. Since the other bacteria is dying faster than the resistant bacteria, the resistant bacteria are able to multiply

Antibiotic resistance is when microorganisms, such as bacteria, are able to survive an exposure to antibiotics and these bacteria are now resistant to the effects of these antibiotics. Antibiotic resistance in bacteria has been an issue since antibiotics were discovered. The fact that bacteria can become resistant to our medical treatments such as antibiotics is a natural evolutionary process, but there are certain human contributions that definitely speed up the process. For example, one of the main contributions that will be discussed is the problem of over prescription of the antibiotic drugs. The

When antibiotic is used most of the bacteria die but a few bacteria with antibiotic resistance gene survive and reproduce and pass this advantage to their offsprings. This selective pressure exists naturally, however antibiotic misuse can be accused for fastening the spread of the antibiotic resistance gene [Refer to figure 2] (Learn Genetics 2015). Consequently, inappropriate antibiotic intake will lead to a greater chance of superbugs being developed. Antibiotic resistance can be defined as a new ability which a bacterium has developed to stay unattached in the presence of an antibiotic that was previously effective to destroy the bacterium (ABC science 2015). Four key mechanisms that has been identified for bacterial antibiotic resistance can be listed as: producing enzymes that inhibit the functionality of the drug, reducing the effectiveness of the drug by producing targets against which the antibiotic, reducing the permeability of the drug into the bacterium and active export of antibiotics using various pumps (Pogson 2012). All these mechanisms can be developed by any of the bacteria when the corresponding mutated gene of antibacterial resistance is received. The genes code for specific proteins, and variation in the gene leads to alteration of the shape of proteins. This leads to changing the functionality

In doing research for an example of natural selection, I came across antibiotic resistant bacteria. This has become one of the biggest threats to the healthcare community and Center for Disease Control. Through the use of antibiotics in treatments that are not necessarily bacterial infections, as well as the over use and misuse of antibiotics, bacteria have evolved in ways making the antibiotics used against them useless. If a bacteria manages to survive through a dose of an antibiotic, they are capable of mutating and can transfer their DNA to other bacteria. The new bacteria multiply quickly and spread to other parts of your body or outside of your body to a new host. Once the bacteria have mutated and its DNA has been transferred to

Antibiotic resistance has become a hot topic amongst scientists and healthcare professionals. It would be rare to observe in a clinical setting and not see some type of antibiotic resistant infection being treated. Scientists and medical doctors are scrambling trying to develop plans to discover new drugs or at least dampen the rate at which these organisms are developing resistance. Evolutionary biologists are claiming this type of resistance as proof of evolution, but is that a statement that is really supported by the evidence? It depends on which type of evolution is being talked about first. Macroevolution is the theory that one species can evolve into a totally different species. Microevolution is the change of genotypes and phenotypes

Widespread use of antibiotics has been very controversial in the media as well in the general population. Due to these controversies, it is very misunderstood to how antibiotics work leading to many patients in the hospital setting wanting to take them when it is not necessary or refusing to take when it is necessary for their survival. Some of this controversy is due to antibiotic resistance, which has spread an alarming rate in the 21st century (Walsh, 2000). Antibiotic resistance is the result of very strong bacteria or microbes that are resistant to the antibiotic prescribed and those microbes accumulate overtime by their survival, reproduction and transfer, leading to increased levels of antibiotic resistance.

The more that researchers understood the genetic processes of bacteria, the better they had understood the concept of antibiotic resistance and why it could end up evolving far beyond the capabilities of current medicine (Podolsky 30). Vigorous research for decades since the antibiotic was created allowed a look into how evolving bacteria could become a major health issue as they are conditioned into resisting major strains of antibiotics.

Antibiotic resistance is and continues to be a global public health issue1.One of the main concerns stems from the ability for bacteria to obtain antibiotic resistance very easily as a result of chromosomal changes, or through plasmids and transposons which generate an exchange of genetic material2. Resistance can also result from single or multiple mutations1,3. To combat this rising force, scientists must research and analyse the many possibilities of mutations in a variety of genes and proteins in specific bacteria and ways to combat them.

For a bacterium to become resistant a change in its DNA must occur. This can happen in more than one way. Bacterium may gain resistance through spontaneous mutation within the bacterium’s DNA. This occurs when a single amino acid that makes up a protein changes arrangement, the order of the peptide chain (made up of amino acids, joined together to make up proteins) then the purpose of the protein in the DNA changes. This causes the genetic makeup of the cell to alter. If the mutation is of benefit and gives the bacteria resistance, once all the other none resistant strains of bacteria are killed, the resistant bacteria multiplies and reproduces, creating a new strain of bacteria which is resistant to the antibiotic in hand. Once a resistance gene is obtained and inserted into the DNA, the bacterium can dominate other bacteria and

Antibiotics was developed to combat bacteria by zero in on the bacteria’s structure. As time goes by bacteria can defeat antibiotics in their natural selection. Natural selection plays an important role in the progression of antibiotic resistance. Most of the bacteria dies when it is exposed to antibiotics they are sensitive to. Therefore, it creates more space and availability of nutrients for the surviving antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Subsequently,

Less than 50 years after penicillin was discovered, strains of bacteria were discovered to be resistant to antibiotics (Haddox, 2013). Over the years scientists have changed the structure of the antibiotics to avoid this resistance, every time the bacteria adapts to overcome the changes. Bacteria divides as fast as 20 minutes and have many different ways to adapt (Haddox, 2013). Bacteria pass their drug resistance between strains and species, causing antibiotics to be less effective to all bacteria (Haddox, 2013).