Question

What is the basis for antibiotic resistance? That is, how did antibiotic resistance develop?

Answer 1

The basis for the antibiotic resistance is the natural selection of the mutations and the evolutionary stress. The organisms develop resistance to certain specific drugs.

When the mutation in the genes offers resistance to the certain drugs that are used to potentially kill the microorganisms, then these mutated genes are passed between the different members of the microorganism population by reproduction or by plasmid exchange.

The resistant genes can also be produced and selected when the bacteria or other microorganisms is continually put under an evolutionary stress by regular exposure to certain drug. The bacteria that survive the drug pass on the genes that make them resistant to the next generation, untimately generating an entire population resistant to that specific drug.