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In spontaneous DNA mutation, bacterial DNA (genetic material) may mutate (change) spontaneously
(indicated by starburst). Drug-resistant tuberculosis arises this way.
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In a form of microbial sex called transformation, one bacterium may take up DNA from another bacterium.
Pencillin-resistant gonorrhea results from transformation.
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Most frightening, however, is resistance acquired from a small circle of DNA called a plasmid, that can
flit from one type of bacterium to another. A single plasmid can provide a slew of different resistances.
In 1968, 12,500 people in Guatemala died in an epidemic of Shigella diarrhea. The microbe harbored a
plasmid carrying resistances to four antibiotics!
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