Evolution and Antibiotic Resistance

"Evolution and Antibiotic Resistance"

Stanley A. Johnson

South University Online

"Evolution and Antibiotic Resistance"

It seems that in each new year there is a strain of bacteria that becomes resistant to the current antibiotics. In this paper I will show that is not always the case, in a new study there are highlights that this resistance has been around for a very long time. Through my research I have found documentation to support my accusations that evolution has in fact played a role in antibiotic resistance.

According to O'Connell (2012, para. 2) "which is detailed in the open-access website PLoS (plosone.org) scientist collected bacteria from Lechuguilla Cave in New Mexico." "The scientist took samples from a region that had been isolated for more than four million years, and tested them against various antibiotics." Through their experiments and studies the scientist concluded that antibiotic resistance is "natural, ancient and hard-wired in the microbial pangenome." The study also led scientist to suggest that their findings might represent an early warning for antibiotic resistance mechanisms we might encounter among human pathogens in the future.

This does not mean that this is the only reason for antibiotic resistance, whenever antibiotics wage war on microorganisms; a few of the microbes are able to survive the drug. Because microbes are always mutating, some random mutation eventually will protect against the drug. Antibiotics used only when needed and as directed usually overwhelm the bugs. Too much antibiotic use selects for more resistant mutants. World-wide spread of bacterial resistance to antimicrobial agents may limit the future progress of medicine. A huge environmental antibiotic pressure, resulting from industrial production and marketing of these drugs, has simultaneously contributed to the increase in the diversity of resistant phenotypes, to the dispersal of resistance genes, which is expected to result in a significant acceleration of the rate of microbial evolution. Current research is focused on the mechanisms involved in the genesis, selection and dispersal of resistance genetic determinants; strategies based on molecular epidemiology and mathematical models may contribute to control or reverse the frightening trend towards a new pre-antibiotic era.

Although overuse and even unnecessary use of antibiotics can cause bacteria to not be affected, there is a bacterium that has been around for millions of years that are resistant to antibiotics. Evolution plays major role in antibiotic resistance, but not the only role, scientist have a lot more studying and experimenting to do to hopefully solve this soon to be serious problem. I feel that following