Charles Darwin's Theory Of Evolution By Natural Selection

Scientists have proved a direct relationship between antibiotic dosage and the emergence and spread of drug-resistant bacteria. Firstly, the overuse of antibiotics clearly drives the evolution of resistance. In many countries where antibiotics are unregulated and can be bought without a prescription. The lack of regulation leads to antibiotics being easily available, plentiful and cheap, which results in overuse. With the emergence of online shopping, people in countries where antibiotics are regulated also can get antibiotics from foreign countries. Secondly, incorrectly prescribed antibiotics also contribute to the promotion of resistant bacteria. Up to half of antibiotics used in humans are unnecessary and inappropriate. For example, a third of people believe that antibiotics are effective for the common cold, and the common cold is the most common reason

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.

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

Possible solutions for resistance in the future are to find new antibiotics in niches besides soil, such as the marine environment as globalization and deforestation make new soil discoveries harder each day. Educating people about resistance to prevent misuse is important as well because not everybody knows about the growing resistance problem. If people know about the resistance problem, proper use of antibiotics would increase. Antibiotics today are easily accessible without the need of prescription in most cases, leading to the wrong self-diagnosis based on observation instead of actual tests. Creating more regulations to ensure prescriptions and correct diagnosis will help with the misuse of antibiotics. Stopping their use as growth hormones in agriculture will also help because the antibiotics from the plants and animals are able to unnecessarily get into a person’s body, which promotes more antibiotic resistance since the dosages are not consistent. As the antibiotics pass through the livestock and people, they contaminate the water system. The antibiotic resistance today does not necessarily mean the end of antibiotics as long as

Another crucial element to consider is the emergence of bacterial strains resistant to antibiotics,given the widespread use of these drugs as a prophylactic or a therapeutic regimen.

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

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 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), describes antibiotic resistance is the ability of bacteria or other microbes to resist the effects of antibiotic treatment. () So instead of being destroyed by the medications, the bacteria survives and continues to reproduce, resultant in new communicable diseases that even more difficult to treat.

There are, however, certain bacteria that are resistant towards antibiotics without changing their genes. Certain bacteria are resistant to some antibiotics naturally, and this happens in the case that the bacteria are too strong to kill with a weak antibiotic. Whenever this occurs, patients will normally be prescribed a more powerful antibiotic. This also happens when the colonies of bacteria are too large in comparison to the amount of antibiotic, and taking a higher dosage of antibiotic can help this.

Like any other organism, bacterium are subject to evolutionary pressure. Antibiotic resistance in bacteria is rarely the result of a single mutation leading to full resistance, but rather the result of a series of mutations that incrementally increased antibiotic resistance. For example, in the case of fluoroquinolone resistance, resistance started with a mutation in the efflux pump, granting Streptococcus pneumoniae the ability to survive certain treatment regimens (13). This became an issue when people started to misuse their antibiotics. In this particular example, because patients did not follow their prescription regimens, they only killed the bacteria not resistant to fluoroquinolone. This selective pressure drove bacteria to further develop fluoroquinolone resistance, meaning that the initial infection remained untreated, and would now require a

Antibiotic resistance is, in simplest terms, just natural selection – but at a hugely exacerbated rate. We can see the effects of natural selection in ourselves; that’s why we don’t have webbed fingers, because they didn’t exactly benefit the terrestrial human race. But while it takes human beings 20-30 years to reproduce, it takes most bacteria 20-30 minutes. Think about that for a second. By reproducing every 20 minutes, a single E. Coli bacterium can create 70 billion new bacteria in just 12 hours. About 2% of those bacteria will have some type of mutation, and

The overuse of antibiotics is creating stronger germs; some bacteria is already resistant to antibiotics. Therefore, when bacteria become resistant to antibiotics, it is difficult and costly to treat that infection. The treat to a serious bacterial infection is a big threat to public health.