(a) Describe Pseudomonas aeruginosa and its implications in disease.Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a common type of gram-negative bacteria usually found in soil and water. It rarely causes problems in healthy people. However, it is an opportunistic pathogen to humans which causes pneumonia, urinary tracts infections and wound infections among others. People who are more likely to get a severe Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection include those with long-term conditions such as Cystic fibrosis or have a compromised immune system. In those cases, treatment proves extremely difficult.(b) Most strains of P. aeruginosa have become resistant to almost all conventional antibiotics used in the clinic to treat infections.The mechanism of antibiotic resistance involves proteins, for example:* Enzymes that breakdown antibiotics* Membrane proteins that neutralize antibiotics* Membranes protein that pump out antibioticsExplain why antibiotic resistance arises as a result of mutation.The administration of antibiotics to treat an infection poses direct evolutionary stress on the bacterial population. Antibiotic resistance evolves naturally via natural selection through random mutation. If the bacterial population acquires a mutation allowing them to survive in the presence of that antibiotic that strain will keep multiplying. Meanwhile, the susceptible bacteria are killed off and the new generation will be fully resistant. The resistance changes in the offspring will be maintained if there is a continuous presence of the antibiotic in the bacterium’s environment.(c) Antibiotics are used to treat people with bacterial infections. Explain the danger of the widespread use to antibiotics to treat disease.Antibiotic resistance and the creation of the multidrug-resistant strains is the primary threat on Public health today caused by the misuse or overuse or Antibiotics. The once easily treatable bacterial infections have now become untreatable. In numerous cases, these dangerous antibiotic-resistant infections can lead to serious morbidity or even mortality. Overuse and misuse of antibiotics can be due to: Incorrect diagnosis, unnecessary prescriptions, improper use by patients and their use as livestock food. All these factors maintain the evolutionary selective pressure, and without the pressure thr resistant bacterial strains would disappear over time. However, it gets even more complicated because susceptible bacteria can easily become resistant to one or more antibiotics; by acquiring pieces of DNA that code for the resistance properties from other bacteria through horizontal transfer (plasmid exchange).

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