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Is antibiotic resistance and example of evolution?

5 Answers

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  • DrJ
    Lv 7
    6 years ago
    Favorite Answer

    Yes it is. The basic definition of evolution today is change of allele frequency of a population over time. The necessary ingredients are usually mutations (producing new alleles or new genes) creating unequal individuals with unequal chances of survival. In the case of antibiotic resistance, when unequal bacteria are put in an environment that has antibiotics, most will die but those with alleles to neutralize the antibiotic will survive, reproduce, and eventually the bacteria population over time will show resistance. This process is called natural selection and leads to evolution.

    Now, add to this mix unlimited time (life has been on earth for 3.5 billion years), changing environments, geographical isolation,... etc, this will lead to speciation, and eventually the higher groups we see today.

    Some religious fundamentalists will tell you that what antibiotic resistance shows is "microevolution" or adaptation, not "evolution" or the process of evolving higher forms. But evolution is evolution..... the definition is pretty straight forward. It's like fundamentalists agree that 2+2=4 but somehow it's a different process that 200+200=400. It isn't.

    Hope that helps.

  • ?
    Lv 7
    6 years ago

    I'm going with "Yes, yes it is" since we're encountering more and more strains that have more than one antibiotic resistance. Our overuse of antibiotics is selecting for these.

  • Trevor
    Lv 4
    6 years ago

    The idea of evolution is that the first life form, hypothesised to be a single cell photosynthetic bacteria, progressed from this simple form into more complex life forms including humans, through adding biological functions, adding biological features, and by biological morphology.

    The example here fails to show any progress, nor does it add complexity, nor does it show a process that can change the bacteria into a different life form.

    Instead it shows a bacteria changing into another bacteria - no biological morphology

    It shows a loss of function - losing the ability to produce the enzyme to "eat" the food/drug.

    It shows a loss of strength, so that it is weaker than the rest of the bacterial population, and can only do anything significant when the rest of the (stronger) population has been wiped out.

  • 6 years ago

    Not an example of evolution but an example of natural selection.

  • Anna D
    Lv 7
    6 years ago

    I believe it is but I haven't taken a science class in a long time.

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