Question

How would you induce antibiotic production by a soil bacterium?

a. raise the pH

b. add more cells to the culture

c. increase temperature

d. decrease temperature

e. lower the pH

Answer 1

bacteria have optimum pH and temperature at which it grows, if the temperature or pH is varied from the optimum values the rate of bacterial growth decreases.

antibiotics are produced by bacteria to kill other bacteria competing for the same resource, this happens when the resources are limiting, so increasing the number of cells by adding more cells to the culture, increases the competition between the cells for the resource ( food) so bacteria produce antibiotics to kill other bacteria in the culture or the area.

so the answer is b) add more cells to the culture.