On 17 Aug 2003 06:22:22 GMT, Brian Sandle
posted:

Mooshie peas wrote:
On 13 Aug 2003 07:49:20 GMT, Brian Sandle
posted:

The antibiotics provide the selective force and the bacteria can pick up
resistance genes from the food, since they are constantly present.

What are "resistance genes"? Resistance to what?

This describes mechanisms of action of various antibiotics.


Linkname: Antibiotics
URL
http://users.erols.com/jkimball.ma.u...tibiotics.html
size: 441 lines

Resistance genes give a bacteria a pathway to outwit that sort of
mechanism.

When a biotechnologist is trying to genetically engineer a species they
usually put an antibiotic resistance marker in the package. That is so
they can find out which of the plants have been changed. The changed ones
will not die when the antibiotic is applied.

Another marker option for the job is to make the organism fluoresce green.

Bacteria are mutating constantly.

Yes they transfer genes between one another and pick them up from dead
ones, too. And antiobiotic restance genes, if available, can allow the
bacteria to become resistant to other antiobiotics, too.

But my question was trying to elicit what exactly these were resistant
to. Different "resistance genes" are overcoming a particular pathway
block. There are no such things as "generic resistance genes" that
offer resistance to all antibiotic actions, are there?