How does bacteria become resistant to antibiotics

Antibiotic Resistance Threatens Everyone Terms. To receive email updates about this page, enter your email address: Email Address. What's this? Links with this icon indicate that you are leaving the CDC website. Linking to a non-federal website does not constitute an endorsement by CDC or any of its employees of the sponsors or the information and products presented on the website.

You will be subject to the destination website's privacy policy when you follow the link. CDC is not responsible for Section compliance accessibility on other federal or private website. Cancel Continue. Penicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus Penicillin-resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae Penicillinase-producing Neisseria gonorrhoeae.

Plasmid-mediated vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium Vancomycin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. This means that some bacteria can share their DNA and make other germs become resistant. Example: Gram-negative bacteria have an outer layer membrane that protects them from their environment.

These bacteria can use this membrane to selectively keep antibiotic drugs from entering. Example: Some Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteria can produce pumps to get rid of several different important antibiotic drugs, including fluoroquinolones, beta-lactams, chloramphenicol, and trimethoprim.

Example: Klebsiella pneumoniae bacteria produce enzymes called carbapenemases, which break down carbapenem drugs and most other beta-lactam drugs. Example: Some Staphylococcus aureus bacteria can bypass the drug effects of trimethoprim. Example: Escherichia coli bacteria with the mcr- 1 gene can add a compound to the outside of the cell wall so that the drug colistin cannot latch onto it.

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On This Page. Some help us. Some make people, crops, or animals sick. Some of those germs are resistant to antibiotics. Antibiotics kill germs that cause infections. But antibiotic-resistant germs find ways to survive. One is through mutations that occur in the DNA of the cell during replication. The other way that bacteria acquire resistance is through horizontal gene transfer.

There are three different ways in which this can occur, but in each case genetic material is transferred from antibiotic-resistant bacteria to other bacterial cells, making them resistant to antibiotics as well.

Once bacterial cells acquire resistance, exposure to antibiotics kills off non-resistance bacteria, while the antibiotic-resistant bacteria proliferate. ARAC was created to preserve the effectiveness of antibiotics by engaging in research, advocacy and science-based policy. Mechanisms of Antibiotic Resistance. Mechanisms of antibiotic resistance: Natural resistance due to an impermeable membrane or lack of a target; Modify antibiotic target; Produce an enzyme that inactivates antibiotics; Pump antibiotics out.

Ways that Bacteria Acquire Resistance. Ways that bacteria acquire resistance: Mutation — Through the process of cell replication, some bacteria develop mutations that makes them resistant to antibiotics.