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A hypothetical bacterium swims among human intestinal contents until it finds a suitable location on the intestinal lining. It adheres to the intestinal lining using a feature that also protects it from phagocytes, bacteriophages, and dehydration. Fecal matter from a human in whose intestine this bacterium lives can spread the bacterium, even after being mixed with water and boiled. The bacterium is not susceptible to the penicillin family of antibiotics. It contains no plasmids and relatively little peptidoglycan.
This bacterium's ability to survive in a human who is taking penicillin pills may be due to the presence of ________.
A) gram-negative cell wall
B) peptidoglycan in the cell wall
C) lipopolysaccharides in the cytoplasm
D) long polypeptides in the cell wall

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The fact that the bacterium is not susceptible to the penicillin family of antibiotics suggests that it has a gram-negative cell wall, as these types of bacteria have an outer membrane that makes them more resistant to certain antibiotics. Peptidoglycan, lipopolysaccharides, and long polypeptides are all components found in the cell wall of bacteria, but none of these directly make them resistant to penicillin.

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