What effect does penicillin have on bacteria?

i need it in form of a school report

What effect does penicillin have on bacteria?
Penicillin stops the bacteria from making their cell wall, and so the bacteria cannot perform many of their normal actions and - in fact - will swell %26amp; burst in water.





Evolutionarily, since in any population of bacteria, there will be *some* immune to penicillin, it means that only those that are immune will be left. And when they divide and grow, the whole new population will be immune to penicillin.


This is why it is often important to use more than one antibiotic, and also why it is importnat to finish the course of antibiotics fully, and not to stop when you feel better.
Reply:Penicillin is discovered by Sir Alexander Fleming...accidentaly I think. It kills it. It is an antibiotic. It is a fungi (mold)....and fungi are known enemies of bacteria...they kill bacteria. That's why in culturing bacteria, we have to spray some anti-fungal material for our experiment to be successful.
Reply:Penicillin kills bacteria by interfering with the ability to synthesize cell wall
Reply:yes but for clarifification keep in mind that penicillin is a chemical compound "secreted" by fungi to limit competition by surrounding bacteria. It indeed kills bacteria but don't confuse "penicillin", an organic molecule, with the fungi penicillium, the organism that produces penicillin.





so the mechanism of penicillin is that it prevents the final cross-linking step in the synthesis of peptidoglycan, the major component of a bacterial cell wall. Without peptidoglycan the bacteria cannot withstand the "pressure" of its internal environment, and it lyses. Penicillin is interesting because it structurally mimics the enzyme "peptidoglycan transpeptidase" ..so it eats up the reactants in the chemical reaction that produces amino-glycan crosslinks in the cell wall. Its an example of competitive inhibition.





because only bacteria have this enzyme and only bacteria produce peptidoglycan, only bacteria can be targeted by this drug. It was deemed the miracle drug of its time because its 100% selective with no harm to humans. compare this to chemotherapy where you're unselectively killing all cells in an area with massive side-effects.
Reply:beta lactam ring of penicillin blocks the transpeptidase enzyme from linking the amino acids needed to build the peptidoglycan cell wall of bacteria. Thus new bacterial cell wall that is laid down while beta lactam is around tends to be weak and bacterial cells burst due to osmotic pressure. Bacteria gain resistance to penicillin by producing beta-lactamase which breaks down beta lactam ring.