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

according to lamarckism, th organism further develops characters that it needs to strenghten its survival in the ever evolving environment. Thus, when this theory is applied to antibiotic resistance in bacteria, it can be said that over time when micro organisms where exposed to the antibiotics it caused them to acquire the ability over a period of time such that they developed plasmids with antibiotic resistance gene within them. This useful gene is then passed on to offspring over time.

According to darwinism, the organism undergo natural selection process to survive and compete in the ever evolving environment. Thus,it can be said that according to this theory, the bacteria already possessed genes for antibiotic resistance and over time when exposed to the antibiotic more and more. It caused them to select population which would survive the antibiotic and give rise to antibiotic resistant population of bacteria.

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