The most antimicrobial agent used in man's history was penicillin. There are some resistances in any epidemiological contexts but it's so far from others antibiotic classes. What is the reason for this particular phenomenon?
One idea is that resistance to penicillin may compromise other importance process like competence, which is an important process for this group of bacteria, because create bacterial diversity by genetic variability. Additionally, you may expect a cost in fitness in this particular genus due to resistance and lost of resistant determinant due to high rates of recombination. Taking both factors together, you can expect that under non-selective pressure, susceptible population of Streptococci should outcompete resistant isolates which in turn keep resistance prevalence not too high.
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