A hosptal technician, while doing some routine culturing of microorganisms in a lab, noticed a bacterial colony growing on a culture medium containing three different antibiotics. He identified the bacterium as one that did not cause a human desease, but he still reported his observation to the hospital administration. He was worried because

Options

A. he had no way of killing this bacterium now that it was resistant to antibiotics
B. resistance to antibiotics could be transferred to disease-causing bacteria by transduction or conjugation
C. the bacterium might feed on the antibiotics and, therefore, be able to grow in people taking these antibiotics
D. if people accidentally eat contaminated food inside the hospital, they would become resistant to the antibiotic.

Answer

B

Explanation

More and more bacteria are becoming rsistant to common antibiotics. A large proprtion of gene transfer between bacteria takes place with the aid of conugative plasmids, a part of the bacterial DNA. A plasmid can exist and multiply inside a cell, by using cell's machinery, but can then be trasferred to another cell and in that way spread between bacteria. Genetically, antibiotic resistance spreads. through bactrieal population both "vertically" when new generation Inherit antibiotic resistance genes, and 'horizontally" when bacteria share or exhange sections of genetic material with other bacteria. Horizontal gene transfer can even occur between different bacterial species. Enviormentally, antibiotic resistance spreads as bacteria themselves move from place to place. bacteria can travel via air and water. People can also pass the resistance bacteria to other e.g., by coughing or contact with unwashed hands.