Active infections are often treated with a combination of several antibiotics at once to reduce the chances of antibiotic resistance. Why would this procedure be less likely to create a population of resistant bacteria than giving one antibiotic and then trying another and possibly another in sequence?

A. A bacterium would need to have a mutation caused by insertion or deletion of a sequence, which is much less likely to occur than a base pair substitution, in order to survive several antibiotics at a time.
B. Giving one antibiotic at a time would allow the bacteria enough time to tailor t

Question

Active infections are often treated with a combination of several antibiotics at once to reduce the chances of antibiotic resistance. Why would this procedure be less likely to create a population of resistant bacteria than giving one antibiotic and then trying another and possibly another in sequence?

A. A bacterium would need to have a mutation caused by insertion or deletion of a sequence, which is much less likely to occur than a base pair substitution, in order to survive several antibiotics at a time.
B. Giving one antibiotic at a time would allow the bacteria enough time to tailor t