Question

Claim/Evidence/Reasoning (CER): We discovered that under certain environmental conditions, bacteria with one kind of variation tended to become more common in the population over time. Which kind(s) of bacteria was this and if a patient was infected by a population made up of 40 of this kind of bacteria, would they be as easy, as hard, or harder to eliminate with antibiotics as a population of the 40bacteria you started with in Investigation 2, Trial B?

Answer 1

The kind of bacteria that became more common are those with antibiotic-resistant variations due to natural selection. As a result, these bacteria would be harder to eliminate with antibiotics in an infected patient.

Step-by-step explanation:

The bacteria that became more common in the population over time would be the ones with variations that confer antibiotic resistance. This evolutionary change is due to natural selection, as the presence of antibiotics in the environment favors bacteria that can survive their effects. As for a patient infected with a population of these 40 antibiotic-resistant bacteria, it would be harder to eliminate them with antibiotics compared to a population of non-resistant bacteria. This is because the resistant bacteria have a trait that allows them to survive the treatment, and therefore they continue to reproduce and pass this resistant trait to their offspring, making the population more difficult to eradicate.