Antibiotic Resistance of Bacteria: An Example of Evolution in Action?

Antibiotic resistance of bacteria is not an example of evolution in action but rather variation within a
bacterial kind. It is also a testimony to the wonderful design God gave bacteria.

Bacteria are single-celled microorganisms, and most bacterial species are either spherical (called cocci) or
rod-shaped (called bacilli). The 3D rendering on the left shows bacilli bacteria.
The extraordinary ability of certain bacteria to develop resistance to antibioticswhich are otherwise useful
in speeding recovery from some illnesseshas been a hot topic on the minds of doctors, hospital staff,
reporters, and the general public for several years. It is also heralded as a textbook example of evolution in
action.

These bacteria are being studied by evolutionary scientists with the hope that they will reveal secrets as to
how molecules-to-man evolution could have happened.

But are bacteria really evolving?

Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria
Antibiotics are natural substances secreted by bacteria and fungi to kill other bacteria that are competing
for limited nutrients. (The antibiotics used to treat people today are typically derivatives of these natural
products.) Scientists are dismayed to discover that some bacteria have become resistant to antibiotics
through various alterations, or mutations, in their DNA.

Hospitals have become a breeding ground for antibiotic resistant bacteria. These bacteria proliferate in an
environment lled with sick people who have poor immune systems and where antibiotics have eliminated
competing bacteria that are not resistant.

Bacteria that are resistant to modern antibiotics have even been found in the frozen bodies of people who
died long before those antibiotics were discovered or synthesized.1

History of Antibiotic Resistance
Antibiotics were rst discovered through a providential experiment by Alexander Fleming in 1928. His work
eventually led to the large-scale production of penicillin from the mold Penicillium notatum in the 1940s. As
early as the late 1940s resistant strains of bacteria began to appear.2 Currently, it is estimated that more
than 70% of the bacteria that cause hospital-acquired infections are resistant to at least one of the
antibiotics used to treat them.3

Antibiotic resistance continues to expand for a multitude of reasons, including over-prescription of
antibiotics by physicians, non-completion of prescribed antibiotic treatments by patients, use of antibiotics
in animals as growth enhancers (primarily by the food industry), increased international travel, and poor
hospital hygiene.2

How Do Bacteria Become Resistant?
Bacteria can gain resistance through two primary ways:

1. By mutation, and

2. By using a built-in design feature to swap DNA (called horizontal gene transfer)bacteria share resistance
genes.

An antibiotic kills a bacterial cell by simply disrupting a critical function. This is achieved in the cell in much
the same way that a saboteur can cause a massive jetliner to crash by simply cutting the hydraulic lines.

Bacteria can also become antibiotic resistant by gaining mutated DNA from other bacteria. Unlike you and
me, bacteria can swap DNA. But this still is not an example of evolution in action. No new DNA is generated
(a requirement for molecules-to-man evolution), it is just moved around. Its like taking money from your
left pocket and putting it into your right pocketit doesnt make you wealthier. This mechanism of
exchanging DNA is necessary for bacteria to survive in extreme or rapidly changing environments like a
hospital (or like those found shortly after the Flood).8

What Does It Really Prove?
The mechanisms of mutation and natural selection aid bacteria populations in becoming resistant to
antibiotics. However, mutation and natural selection also result in bacteria with defective proteins that have
lost their normal functions.

Evolution requires a gain of functional systems for bacteria to evolve into manfunctioning arms, eyeballs,
and a brain, to name a few.

Mutation and natural selection, thought to be the driving forces of evolution, only lead to a loss of functional
systems. Therefore, antibiotic resistance of bacteria is not an example of evolution in action but rather
variation within a bacterial kind. It is also a testimony to the wonderful design God gave bacteria, master
adapters and survivors in a sin-cursed world.



Main
1. Antibiotics are natural substances secreted by bacteria to ght for nutrients
2. Hospitals has become a place where bacteria is reproduced well
3. Bacteria that are resistant to modern antibiotics have even been found in the frozen bodies of people who
died long before those antibiotics were discovered
4. Alexander Flemings Discovered antibiotics in 1928.
5. Antibiotic resistance continues to expand for many reasons
Support
1. Scientists are shocked that some bacteria have become resistant to antibiotics
2. environments lled with sick people who have poor immune systems are where bacteria can thrive
3. more than 70% of the bacteria that cause hospital-acquired infections are resistant to at least one of the
antibiotics used to treat it.
4. over-prescription of antibiotics by physicians and other things can cause bacteria to become resistant.


Similarities in articles
Like in this article and others over prescription can cause to mutations that cause resistance which can be
easier to control hospital areas were heavy exposure may be present.