Question:medium
Mycoplasma is resistant to which of the following?
Mycoplasma is resistant to which of the following?
Show Hint
No cell wall means cell-wall drugs are useless - pick the beta-lactam.
Updated On: Jun 23, 2026
- Ceftriaxone
- Cephalosporins
- Aminoglycosides
- Fluoroquinolones
Show Solution
The Correct Option is A
Solution and Explanation
Step 1: Start from microbiology. The defining oddity of Mycoplasma is the total absence of a peptidoglycan cell wall, which makes it pleomorphic and unstainable by Gram stain.
Step 2: Connect structure to drug failure. Beta-lactams such as cephalosporins kill by blocking transpeptidation of the wall. If there is no wall, the drug has no target, so Mycoplasma is innately resistant to all wall-acting agents.
Step 3: Pick ceftriaxone. Among the choices ceftriaxone is the named third-generation cephalosporin (a beta-lactam), so it is the agent Mycoplasma resists.
Step 4: Confirm by elimination. Fluoroquinolones hit DNA gyrase and aminoglycosides hit the ribosome, both of which Mycoplasma still possesses, so those drugs (along with macrolides and tetracyclines) can work and are not the answer. \[\boxed{\text{Ceftriaxone}}\]
Step 2: Connect structure to drug failure. Beta-lactams such as cephalosporins kill by blocking transpeptidation of the wall. If there is no wall, the drug has no target, so Mycoplasma is innately resistant to all wall-acting agents.
Step 3: Pick ceftriaxone. Among the choices ceftriaxone is the named third-generation cephalosporin (a beta-lactam), so it is the agent Mycoplasma resists.
Step 4: Confirm by elimination. Fluoroquinolones hit DNA gyrase and aminoglycosides hit the ribosome, both of which Mycoplasma still possesses, so those drugs (along with macrolides and tetracyclines) can work and are not the answer. \[\boxed{\text{Ceftriaxone}}\]
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