Antibiotic resistance is a growing challenge in the treatment of infectious diseases worldwide. Bacteria become resistant to antibiotics by acquiring or mutating genes that allow them to survive the administration of antibiotics, which otherwise would kill them. However, this advantage in the presence of antibiotics can imply costs to bacteria when the drugs stop being administered. This occurs because resistance generally affects genes that are essential for the cell and so, once back to the original context, without antibiotics, bacteria stop being fit to compete for its own survival.
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Source: Phys.org