Penicillin Resistance detection kits

Bacteria are sometimes able to produce penicillinase, an enzyme that degrades penicillins. This ability can spread throughout the bacterial population via a small ring of DNA in a process called conjugation. This is the bacterial equivalent of sexual. Penicillinase may have emerged as a defense mechanism for bacteria in their habitats, such as the case of penicillinase-rich Staphylococcus aureusreproduction, where individual organisms share new genetic information between them.