Escherichia coli and antibiotic resistanceIntroduction:Escherichia coli, short E. coli is an important bacteria that are

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Escherichia coli and antibiotic resistance

Introduction:

Escherichia coli, short E. coli is an important bacteria that are found in the lower part of intestines of warm blooded animals, including human. People’s feces for a day usually contain about 100 million or 10 trillion individuals of E. coli. E. coli is a major component of a bacterial system that helps to digest food particles. E. coli also has commercial uses. For instance, is used as an organic indicator for the sewage treatment to indicate the level of the concentration of poop pollutions in the water. However, uncontrolled growth of E. coli bacteria or the allocation of E. coli to other parts of the human body can be dangerous or even fatal. E. coli is also used in many laboratory experiments because they are cheap to acquire and easy to culture.  

When people are referring to bacteria that are resistant against penicillin, for instance penicillin resistant E. coli, these people are referring specifically to the ability of this bacteria population to produce an enzyme called penincillinase. Penincillinase is a general term describing a wide variety of enzymes that are capable of deterring penicillin invasion.  A common type of penincillinase is plasmid-mediated extended-spectrum b-lactamases (ESbl) (bacteria can transfer genetic material through replication or plasmid). Plasmid-mediated means that the enzyme is found or transferred by plasmid; extended-spectrum means that this enzyme (b-lactamases) has resistance against multiple antibiotic drugs. Beta lactamases is the real charm here. Beta lactamases breaks the lactamine rings in the penicillin structure and destroying penicillin molecules; thus successfully stops a penicillin attack.  

Penicillin is a general term describing a broad-spectrum of antibiotics obtained from penicillium molds or produced synthetically to fight gram-positive bacteria (only prokaryotic cells). Penicillin destroys gram-positive bacteria by destroying the peptidoglycan wall. In a typical bacteria environment, rapture in cell wall will almost always cause an explosion or disfigurement of the bacteria, thus destroying the bacteria. Penicillin does not work well against gram-negative bacteria because peptidoglycan wall is located deeper within the cell wall, thus making it difficult for penicillin to destroy the bacteria.  

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At the peak of antibiotic drugs, there were considered “magic bullets.” But as more and more antibiotics are used, whether as a medicine for people or crops, many antibiotic resistant cases have been discovered and antibiotic resistant organic beings now pose a serious problem to man kind. The principles behind the appearance of antibiotics are rather simple. Microorganisms such as bacteria have gone through a miniature evolution. Bacteria have shorter life span than human and thus undergo many generations within a single human generation. As Charles Darwin pointed out in his books, time is the essential gradient as any kind ...

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***** An ambitious investigation described in detail and showing a clear understanding of the relevant theory.