Concept explainers
A 4-month-old infant had been running a moderate fever for 36 hours, and a nervous mother made a call to her pediatrician. Examination and tests revealed no outward signs of infection or cause of the fever. The anxious mother wanted a prescription for antibiotics, but the pediatrician recommended watching the infant for two days before making a decision. He explained that decades of rampant use of antibiotics in medicine and agriculture has caused a global surge in antibiotic-resistant bacteria, drastically reducing the effectiveness of antibiotic therapy for infections. He pointed out that bacteria can exchange antibiotic resistance traits and that many pathogenic strains are now resistant to several antibiotics. The mother was not placated by these explanations and insisted that her baby receive antibiotics immediately. This situation raises several issues.
1. Was the pediatrician correct in stating that bacteria can exchange antibiotic resistance genes? If so, how is this possible?
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Concepts of Genetics (12th Edition)
- 10) If the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus experiences a cost for maintaining one or more antibiotic- resistance genes, what would happen in environments that lack antibiotics? A) These genes would be maintained in case the antibiotics appear. B) These bacteria would be outcompeted and replaced by bacteria that have lost these genes. C) These bacteria would try to make the cost worthwhile by locating and migrating to microenvironments where traces of antibiotics are present. D) The number of genes conveying antibiotic resistance would increase in these bacteria. 11) When nonrandom mating occurs in a population so that individuals prefer to mate with similar individuals, allele frequencies should A) remain the same, but homozygotes will be overrepresented in the population. B) remain the same, but heterozygotes will be overrepresented in the population. C) change and heterozygotes will be overrepresented in the population. D) change and homozygotes will be overrepresented in the…arrow_forwardAn F' merozygote is formed as a result of the following events: 1) the recipient cell receives genes which used to be a part of an Hfr bacterium chromosome 2) an F' bacterium excuses an F factor from another bacterium chromosome 3) an F factor that was imprecisely excised from Hfr chromosome was transferred to an F- bacterium 4)an F' bacterium conjugate with an F- bacterium 5) an F' bacterium incorporates an F factor into its chromosome 6) an F- bacterium incorporates an F factor into its chromosomearrow_forwardYou have isolated a strain of E.coli that is resistant to penicillin,streptomycin,chloramphenicol and tetracycline. You also observe that when you mix this strain with a strain that is sensitive to all four antibiotics, the new strain becomes resistant to streptomycin,penicillin and chloramphenicol but not tetracycline. Explain how this is so?arrow_forward
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