Antibiotic resistant bacteria are a significant health issue worldwide. Penicill

Question

Antibiotic resistant bacteria are a significant health issue worldwide. Penicillin initially was extremely effective in treating bacterial infections by killing pathogenic bacteria. Today, many bacterial pathogens are resistant and penicillin does not cause significant bacterial cell death.

An explanation of evolutionary change by the theory of inheritance of acquired characteristics (IAA) was proposed by Jean-Baptiste Lemarck. Athough the explanation was rejected soon after it was proposed, it remains as an extremely prevalent misconception of evolution. For illustrative purposes, describe the evolutionary change leading to antibiotic resistance using the theory of inheritance of acquired characteristics.

Charles Darwin described evolutionary change as descent by modification with natural selection. Describe the evolutionary change leading to antibiotic resistance using the theory of descent by modification with natural selection.  Be sure that your explanations are different and illustrate the principles of each theory.

Explanation / Answer

lamarckism states that the organism acquires a particular trait over his lifetime. This causes the development of the trait such that it can be transmitted to its offsprings. According to this theory of evolution, bacteria when exposed to antibiotics acquired ability to resist getting killed.Overtime the genes coding for the resistance became well developed and were transferred/ inherited by offspring.

Darwinism states that all organisms evolve and develop dthrough a process called natural selection, this gives the organism the ability to grow, survive compete and reproduce offspring which can be competent to the ever evolving environment. According to this theory, bacteria initially must have contained antibiotic resistance plasmid. Overtime, these organisms increased in number through natural selection inorder to protect themselves from extinction. Thus, giving rise to the huge population of antibiotic resistant bacteria which are resistant to the penicillin treatment.

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