Why can bacteria adapt to antibiotics, but not adapt to environmental things like heat or acids/soaps (Salmonella as an example)?

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Edit: I’ve had a lot of fun reading all of your analogies

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Anonymous 0 Comments

We didn’t make up antibiotics from thin air, they are based on many types of naturally occurring compounds. Since antibiotics are molecular compounds that cause specific reactions, and not broad forces like heat or pH changes, they can be specifically combatted. Pretty much all life is very dependent on being within a close temperature and/or pH range so deviations in this can be easily fatal and hard to protect against.

B-lactam antibiotics are based on compounds from a fungus. These cause very specific changes on the bacteria cell wall, ultimately causing death of the bacteria. Some bacteria produce B-lactam inhibitors from natural evolution before we even had antibiotics. Later we as humans created B-lactam inhibitor inhibitors to keep our B-lactams from being stopped (Augmentin is a common example). Just like your hair color is based on genes so are the instructions to make resistance compounds, and bacteria are able to share genes with each other which allows resistance to spread. Resistance can also be selected for through treatment with ineffective antibiotics or not finishing all the pills.

Soaps decrease surface tension and allow germs to be washed away.

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