Mechanisms of Antibiotic Resistance

Antibiotic resistance is whenever a bacterial cell is able to destroy an antibiotic. The genes of the bacterial cell will become resistant to the antibiotic. Most of the antibiotic resistant genes reside on the plasmids and can be transferred to another cell by means of conjugation, transformation, and transduction. Conjugation being where the two cells connect using the pilus and then allowing the transfer of one cells DNA to another. Transformation is where one cell will die and then the free-floating "naked" DNA will be picked up by another cell. Transduction is where bacterial DNA transfers from one bacterial cell to another inside a bacteriophage. The main cause of antibiotic resistance is a mutation in the bacterial cell. Also, mutations in the target protein in the bacterial cell can prevent the antibiotics from binding to it.