Abstract
IT is probable that antibiotic-resistant variants of bacteria arise by spontaneous mutation, and their further spread depends upon selective factors in the environment. Thus an antibiotic-resistant variant has a greater chance of survival when growing in the presence of the antibiotic, and this would explain the increase in the number of penicillin-resistant strains of Staphylococcus pyogenes isolated from hospital patients that has occurred since the introduction of the antibiotic1.
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References
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GOULD, J. Origin of Antibiotic-Resistant Staphylococci. Nature 180, 282–283 (1957). https://doi.org/10.1038/180282b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/180282b0
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