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That isn't how it works. Bacteria don't lose resistance over time, that's not how evolution works. A selective pressure was applied to evolve bacteria with resi
by malfist 1y ago
That isn't how it works. Bacteria don't lose resistance over time, that's not how evolution works. A selective pressure was applied to evolve bacteria with resistance, unless there's evolutionarily pressure to lose that evolution, it doesn't get lost
- glenstein 1y agoBut there is evolutionary pressure to lose traits over time. Loss of traits over time is fundamental in evolution. Resistance carries fitness and metabolic costs and evolution is always looking to squeeze out certain traits if they're no longer integral to survival. Moles losing eyesight, flightless birds losing fight musculature and hollow bones once they shifted to new strategies, humans losing the ability to synthesize our own vitamin C when we could get it from a diversified diet. There's also now strong documented history of bacteria losing resistances over time hence the rotating strategy. Granted, some resistances are "cheap" to maintain and not lost, or recirculated in the wild and it's not a panacaea (it's more a hypothesized strategy than a realized one and it hasn't solved the issue), but it's by no means a failure to understand evolutionary principles.
- nicman23 1y agoyeah it actually works exactly like that. they do not need to expend the energy to keep being resistant if the solution is to create an anti-antibiotic or the efficiency of the structures that are changed to be resistant usually are less performant than the wild proteins.