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How can bacteria become resistant to antibiotics?
Answer:
Bacteria reproduce rapidly - a new generation can be produced every 20 minutes by binary fission .
Antibiotics are used to treat bacterial infections : an antibiotic is a chemical that kills bacteria by preventing bacterial cell wall formation .
Mutations occur during reproduction , which produces some variation in the population of bacteria .
As individual bacteria with the most favourable features are most likely to survive and reproduce :
Antibiotics are used to treat bacterial infections : an antibiotic is a chemical that kills bacteria by preventing bacterial cell wall formation .
Mutations occur during reproduction , which produces some variation in the population of bacteria .
As individual bacteria with the most favourable features are most likely to survive and reproduce :
- A mutation might occur that enables a bacterium to resist being killed by antibiotic treatment , while the rest of the population is killed when treated .
- This bacterium would survive the treatment and breed , passing on the antibiotic - resistant gene to it's offspring . Future treatment of this population of bacteria using the same antibiotic would be ineffective as antibiotic - resistant strains of bacteria are created .
First answer by HiGh Sk0ol BoY.
Last edit by HiGh Sk0ol BoY.
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