Extrinsic Antibiotic-Resistant Mechanism in Bacteria

Abstract

Bacteria have acquired a variety of resistance mechanisms to tackle with the challenging environmental conditions. These resistance mechanisms can be intrinsic and extrinsic. Bacteria can respond immediately to the changing environmental conditions by acquiring characteristic traits, altering the functionality of genome, or acquiring competent genome from other species. In case of extrinsic resistance mechanism, bacteria acquire resistance gene from other bacteria which have already resistance for the harsh environmental conditions. In this chapter we have discussed about the horizontal gene transfer, mobile gene transfer, and recombination.