3 ms·
One comment. With bacteria, resistance is to specific (or multiple) antibiotics. This doesn't mean necessarily that the strongest bacteria in general terms get
by JupiterMoon 11y ago
One comment. With bacteria, resistance is to specific (or multiple) antibiotics. This doesn't mean necessarily that the strongest bacteria in general terms get selected. For example MRSA tends to affect people who for some reason have weakened immune systems because healthy people do a decent job of fighting it off.
- gburt 11y agoGood point. My use of the word "strongest" was definitely misleading, but I am not convinced it is always the case that there isn't a relatively low dimensional definition of "strong" in this sense.
- JupiterMoon 11y agoI think (and if I'm wrong someone please correct me) that adaptations the bacteria evolve are specific features to specific pathways that they have for removing toxins (to a bacteria an antibiotic is a strong toxin).
- maxerickson 11y agoIt depends on what you meant by pathway: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antimicrobial_resistance#Mechanisms https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antimicrobial_resistance#Mecha... The mechanism can be encoded on a plasmid, for example: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC514751/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC514751/ So in that case, a bacteria could import the mechanism wholesale from a resistant population. (Plasmids are fragments of DNA that bacteria can swap back and forth, even across species)