Analysis of a Soil Sample for Antibiotic Properties
Location
CoLab, OCB 100
Start Date
27-4-2018 10:30 AM
Document Type
Poster
Description
Today, more people are dying from diseases that we were once able to be treat with antibiotics. This is because antibiotic resistance is rapidly growing throughout the world, decreasing the supply of effective treatments. There are six organisms, known as ESKAPE pathogens that are currently considered to be major threats because their infections are increasingly difficult to treat due to their resistance to multiple antibiotics. Most of today’s antibiotics are made by microorganisms that were harvested from the soil. The purpose of my research is to identify bacteria from soil that have antibiotic properties. For this project, I collected a soil sample from a garden in Kansas City, Missouri. The soil sample was serially diluted onto media plates and individual bacterial colonies were isolated. The colonies I selected for further testing from my dilution plates had a zone of inhibition present. I was able to determine this because there was a clear region where zero growth was present around the colonies. Candidate #7 was chosen for further analysis. Candidate #7 is a white, irregular bacterial colony that displayed antibiotic properties when grown alongside neighboring bacteria. After isolating a pure colony of the microbe, it was tested for antibiotic compound production against lab-safe relatives of the ESKAPE pathogens. With further testing, I will use microscopy and staining, metabolic and biochemical tests, PCR and sequencing of the 16s rRNA to identify Candidate #7. The data presented is just the first step in addressing the current health crisis.
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Analysis of a Soil Sample for Antibiotic Properties
CoLab, OCB 100
Today, more people are dying from diseases that we were once able to be treat with antibiotics. This is because antibiotic resistance is rapidly growing throughout the world, decreasing the supply of effective treatments. There are six organisms, known as ESKAPE pathogens that are currently considered to be major threats because their infections are increasingly difficult to treat due to their resistance to multiple antibiotics. Most of today’s antibiotics are made by microorganisms that were harvested from the soil. The purpose of my research is to identify bacteria from soil that have antibiotic properties. For this project, I collected a soil sample from a garden in Kansas City, Missouri. The soil sample was serially diluted onto media plates and individual bacterial colonies were isolated. The colonies I selected for further testing from my dilution plates had a zone of inhibition present. I was able to determine this because there was a clear region where zero growth was present around the colonies. Candidate #7 was chosen for further analysis. Candidate #7 is a white, irregular bacterial colony that displayed antibiotic properties when grown alongside neighboring bacteria. After isolating a pure colony of the microbe, it was tested for antibiotic compound production against lab-safe relatives of the ESKAPE pathogens. With further testing, I will use microscopy and staining, metabolic and biochemical tests, PCR and sequencing of the 16s rRNA to identify Candidate #7. The data presented is just the first step in addressing the current health crisis.
Comments
The faculty supervisor on this project was Jon Kniss.