L5 - Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria

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Created by
Erin

Cards (3)

  • The overuse of antibiotics has caused natural selection to occur in bacteria. Some bacteria are resistant to antibiotics because of a mutation in a gene. This gives the bacteria a selective advantage as they aren't killed by antibiotics. When antibiotics are used, these mutated bacteria survive, reproduce and pass on their mutated gene to their offspring. This changes the bacteria over many generations, making them all resistant to antibiotics. This is natural selection.
    The same process has occurred for pesticide resistance in plants and warfarin resistance in rats.
  • The human genome is all the DNA in a human. The human genome project sequenced the entire DNA of a human so we know the order of all of the bases (ATGC).
  • An understanding of the human genome is important because it uses information from DNA to develop new ways to treat, cure, or even prevent disease.