Scientists are concerned that bacteria will be resistant to all antibiotics within the next decade. using your knowledge of conjugation in bacteria, describe how bacterial populations can develop drug resistance in such a short time frame.

Bacterial populations can develop drug resistance in a short time by self –transferable plasmids. Few of them carries antibiotic resistance genes for metabolic functions. The overdose of antibiotics for people with a cold increases the killing of the healthy bacteria.

Bacteria can develop resistance in the following ways.

Mutation: By cell replication, some bacteria develop mutations that makes them resistant to antibiotics. Bacteria with the resistant mutation can survive against antibiotics. These resistant bacteria continue to multiply  even when they are exposed to antibiotics

Horizontal Gene Transfer: Antibiotic-resistant genetic material is transferred between different bacteria cells in three different ways: transformation, transduction or conjugation.

there are mainly three domains in biological classification namely; archaea, bacteria, and eukarya.

archaea includes all the prokaryotic cells which are characterized by their lipid membranes. they have branched hydrocarbon which is attached to glycerol through an ether linkage.

bacteria includes all the prokaryotic cells, the cell membrane of which are made up of the unbranched fatty acid chain. in addition, they are attached to glycerol through an ester bond.

eukarya includes all the eukaryotic cells, that is, the cells contain a nucleus and other membrane-bound cell organelles.

they can be autotrophic as well as heterotrophic, unicellular as well as multicellular

they include kingdoms like protista, plantae, animalia, fungi et cetera.

read more on -

explanation: