nutrients or away from harmful toxins. Additionally, many bacteria willdevelop thick exterior walls called endospores, allowing them to endureharsh environmental conditions, attacks from viruses or anti-biotics,and long periods when nutrients are scarce.Bacteria reproduce asexually using a process known as binary fission,where the single chromosome that makes up the DNA of the bacteria isreproduced as an identical copy of the original. The bacteria then splitsin two, each half receiving one of the chromosomes, thus creating twoidentical bacteria. Because binary fission does not allow bacteria tomake the genetic changes necessary for mutation and survival in achanging environment, bacteria must utilize different methods for evolvement. Bacteria can obtain new DNA from the remains of adecomposing bacteria, through a process called conjugation where one bacteria transfers DNA to another through a tube, and by way of a viralinfection known as transduction, where one bacteria creates a virus thatinfects another bacteria, carrying its DNA with it.Bubonic, pneumonic, and septicemic plague, cholera, tuberculosis,and many other illnesses and disease are caused by the small group of known bacteria that negatively affect our bodies. It is well known anddocumented that these diseases and the bacteria that cause them havemutated dramatically in recent years. The overuse of anti-biotics in the past and present has caused these bacteria to mutate and becomeimmune to modern medical remedies.
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