Question

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the percentage of Icelandic children whose bacterial infections were caused by bacteria resistant to penicillin rose at an alarming rate. After public health officials initiated a campaign to reduce the use of penicillin, resistance dropped off. This observation is consistent with the hypothesis that ________.

Answer 1

The correct answer would be - "bacterial populations evolve in response to the selection pressure imposed by antibiotics".

Step-by-step explanation:

The given information provided in the question about the bacterial infection supports the hypothesis that the bacterial population shows the evolution in response to the selection pressure caused by the antibiotics due to the fact that bacteria increased resistance gradually with time. This resistance towards antibiotics increased the percentage of bacterially infected children in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

In this case, the population of bacteria having resistance genes is selected to evolved selected to increase their offsprings.