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Name: Rukky
Status: Student
Age: 17
Location: N/A
Country: N/A
Date: August 2004
Question:
How do microbes adapt to harsh or extreme environmental conditions?


Replies:
Just like any other organism. Within any population of organisms there is great variety. There will always be some that are more resistant than others. If they can survive, they will reproduce more like themselves and there will be more of them. As time goes on, the population as a whole will become more resistant.

It does not happen overnight and any one individual organism cannot adapt if it does not have the genetic capability to do so. Either it is able to survive or it is not. The reason that bacteria seem to adapt faster than other organisms is because their life cycle is so short and they can reproduce many generations in a day. The human generation time is about 25 years. Adaptation in humans takes much more time. vanhoeck


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