Edexcel A-Level Biology B 9BI0
Biological Molecules
Cells, Viruses and Reproduction of Living Things
Classification and Biodiversity
Exchange and Transport
Energy for Biological Processes
Microbiology and Pathogens
Modern Genetics
Origins of Genetic Variation
Control Systems
Ecosystems
Microbiology and Pathogens
Antibiotic resistance
- 3 things to know
- Papers 1 and 3
Overview
Recall questions on how resistance arises by mutation and spreads by natural selection, vertical transmission, conjugation, transformation, transduction and R-plasmids, the misuse that accelerates it, and the control measures and why each is limited.
What you need to know
Answer each one before you reveal it.
Explain why resistant bacteria become more common in a population when antibiotics are applied.
Define conjugation as a mechanism of horizontal gene transfer.
Questions from this subtopic
Each one with the model answer underneath.
- 1
How does antibiotic resistance initially arise in a bacterial population?
Model answer
Through spontaneous random mutations in bacterial DNA that confer a survival advantage in the presence of antibiotics.
- 2
Explain why resistant bacteria become more common in a population when antibiotics are applied.
Model answer
Natural selection favours resistant bacteria because susceptible bacteria are killed by the antibiotic, while resistant individuals survive and reproduce, passing on their resistance genes.
- 3
What is vertical transmission of antibiotic resistance?
Model answer
When resistant bacteria reproduce and pass resistance genes to their daughter cells during cell division.
- 4
Define conjugation as a mechanism of horizontal gene transfer.
Model answer
Direct transfer of plasmids between bacteria via pili (cytoplasmic bridges).
- 5
What is transformation in the context of bacterial gene transfer?
Model answer
The uptake of free DNA from the environment by bacteria.
- 6
Describe transduction as a method of horizontal gene transfer.
Model answer
Transfer of DNA between bacteria via bacteriophages (viruses that infect bacteria).
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