Microevolution is the process by which bacteria develop resistance to antibiotics. When a colony of bacteria is exposed to an antibiotic, most of the bacteria die. However, in some cases a few bacteria have randomly mutated, usually through mistakes in copying the RNA during cell division. By pure chance, some of these mutations might include a strain of RNA that makes that particular bacterium resistant to the antibiotic. This one bacterium is then able to reproduce where the others can't. The actual probablility of a random mutation creating a bacterium that is resistant to a particular antibiotic is exptremely small, but in some cases, the number of bacteria involved is sufficient to offset the odds. | Microevolution is the process by which bacteria develop resistance to antibiotics. When a colony of bacteria is exposed to an antibiotic, most of the bacteria die. However, in some cases a few bacteria have randomly mutated, usually through mistakes in copying the RNA during cell division. By pure chance, some of these mutations might include a strain of RNA that makes that particular bacterium resistant to the antibiotic. This one bacterium is then able to reproduce where the others can't. The actual probablility of a random mutation creating a bacterium that is resistant to a particular antibiotic is exptremely small, but in some cases, the number of bacteria involved is sufficient to offset the odds. |