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

Inheritance of acquired characteristics is proposed by Lamarck is known to be a theory of evolution. But it was rejected as it could not explain convincingly about the genetics and inheritance of characteristics. but, according to this theory, the antibacterial resistance can be explained that the bacteria became resistant to Penicillin after a few generations because of gaining the resistance (acquired characteristic) and passing it to next generation (inheritance). Furthermore, only bacteria that could gained the resistance had survived.

Darwin proposed the theory of evolution basing on the natural selection concept. But, in this theory he could explain the selection that influences the characteristics inherited. According to natural selection, weak traits cannot survive and reproduce to produce fertile offspring. The factors like mutations, genetic drift causes natural selection of organisms that enablles them to survive better and produce fertile offspring. The antibiotic resistance gained bey bacteria can be categorized under natural selection by mutation (a gain of function) that conferred resistance against Penicillin. The prolonged use of penicillin allowed the bacteria to adapt and survive in the penicillin concentration by gain of function mutation and this could be successfully inherited.

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