Resistant bacteria Flashcards – AQA GCSE Combined Science: Trilogy (8464) — Biology — Foundation

How can antibiotic use make resistant bacteria more common?

The antibiotic kills susceptible bacteria, while resistant bacteria may survive and reproduce, increasing their proportion in the population.

Why does using antibiotics only when essential help limit resistant bacterial populations?

It reduces opportunities for resistant bacteria to be selected and spread.

What is a drug?

Any substance taken into the body that modifies or affects chemical reactions in the body.

What are antibiotics?

Drugs used to treat bacterial infections by killing bacteria.

Why are antibiotics ineffective against viral infections?

Antibiotics do not affect viruses.

How does antibiotic resistance affect the treatment of bacterial infections?

It reduces the effectiveness of antibiotics against infections caused by the resistant bacteria.

What is directional selection?

Individuals at one end of a range of variation have greater reproductive success, shifting the distribution of a heritable characteristic over generations.

How can an antibiotic affect resistant and susceptible bacteria differently?

A resistant bacterium may survive and reproduce, while susceptible bacteria are inhibited or killed.

Why can resistant bacteria become a larger proportion of an antibiotic-exposed population?

Surviving resistant bacteria reproduce and pass resistance alleles to their descendants.

Does an antibiotic produce resistance mutations because bacteria need them?

No. The antibiotic selects resistant bacteria; it does not produce a mutation because bacteria need it.