Answer :
Final answer:
The multiple antibiotic resistance (mar) locus contributes to the development of antibiotic-resistant bacterial strains by promoting chromosomal mutations and facilitating horizontal gene transfer. Overuse and misuse of antibiotics further accelerate this resistive evolution. This can lead to the emergence of 'superbugs', which are resistant to many conventional forms of antibiotic therapy.
Explanation:
The multiple antibiotic resistance (mar) locus significantly contributes to the development of antibiotic-resistant bacterial strains via several mechanisms. When a pathogen is exposed to an antimicrobial compound, it can promote the growth of resistant strains either by chromosomal mutations or horizontal gene transfer between bacteria. This resistance can be passed on to future generations, eventually becoming dominant within a microbial population that is repeatedly exposed to the antimicrobial.
Several drug-resistant genes responsible for this resistance are often found on plasmids or in transposons, which can easily transfer between bacteria. Transposons also have the ability to move resistance genes between plasmids and chromosomes to further promote the spread of resistance. Some strains of bacteria manage to 'escape' many conventional forms of antibiotic therapy, becoming multidrug-resistant microbes (MDRs) or Superbugs.
The overuse and misuse of antibiotics can further accelerate the evolution of drug resistance. With time, microbes continue to evolve to overcome antimicrobial compounds, both naturally occurring and human-made. This results in increased resistance to many antibiotics, including last-resort ones such as Colistin. The MCR-1 gene that confers colistin resistance, for example, was recently detected in a plasmid found in E. coli.
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