Figure 3.

Resistance versus tolerance to antimicrobial agents. a) The antimicrobial agent (purple) binds to the target (blue) altering its function, which causes bacterial death. b) The target of the antimicrobial agents has been altered so that it fails to bind to the antimicrobial and the cell becomes resistant to treatment with the agent. c) A different molecule (yellow) inhibits the antimicrobial target. This prevents the antimicrobial agent from corrupting its functions, resulting in tolerance [136].