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Microbiology · Chapter 7

Selective Pressure: Why Survivors Take Over

Antibiotics do not turn a bacterium into a resistant one. They kill the ones that cannot survive and leave the ones that already could. This plate lets you watch that happen. Set how many cells start out resistant, give a dose, then let the survivors divide. Nothing on this plate ever changes its genes because a drug arrived.

The plate give a dose, then let them grow

Selection plate

Reading the plate. Green cells carry a resistance gene already. Pale cells do not. Empty space is where cells have died or have not grown yet. Every daughter cell inherits exactly what its parent had.

The population after each action

Resistant share over time

Each bar is one action you took. Bar height is how many cells are alive. Green is the resistant part. A dose makes the bar short and almost all green, and growth makes it tall and still green.

A fresh plateset it up, then give a dose
Cells alive0
Resistant0
Resistant share0%
Cells that start out resistant: 1 of 96
1 in 9612 in 96
How the dose is taken
Copying errors while cells divide
Do something to the plate