Eureka Springs Soil Yields Bacteria with Potential ESKAPE Pathogen Fighting Abilities
Location
CoLab, OCB 100
Start Date
27-4-2018 10:30 AM
Document Type
Poster
Description
Humanity is racing against rapidly adapting deadly bacteria in a fight for survival! This seems like it should be a joke headline from a supermarket tabloid but unfortunately it is the reality we are facing. ESKAPE pathogens have found ways to evade most, if not all the antibiotics we currently have at our disposal and new bacterial candidates must be found that have ways of disabling these pathogens. Fortunately, within a simple soil sample gathered in a plastic bag we are able to find thousands of different bacteria with potential pathogen-fighting abilities. The Small World Initiative (starting in 2012) has been recruiting students around the globe to help in the effort to find bacteria with the potential to create novel antibiotics. I decided to gather my soil on a weekend trip to Eureka Springs, Arkansas-- a town known for its natural springs (with rumored healing properties). After making serial dilutions, growing fields of thousands of bacterial colonies on 50% TSA to find zones of inhibition, and then screening 23 potential candidates against ESKAPE pathogen close relatives, I found one candidate that appears to halt the growth of Enterococcus faecalis. Attempts to isolate this particularly sticky bacteria through streak plating prove difficult but I am confident that I will be able to get it on its own in order to discover its gene sequence, its close relatives, and find out what component it produces to help fight against E. faecalis.
Image
Eureka Springs Soil Yields Bacteria with Potential ESKAPE Pathogen Fighting Abilities
CoLab, OCB 100
Humanity is racing against rapidly adapting deadly bacteria in a fight for survival! This seems like it should be a joke headline from a supermarket tabloid but unfortunately it is the reality we are facing. ESKAPE pathogens have found ways to evade most, if not all the antibiotics we currently have at our disposal and new bacterial candidates must be found that have ways of disabling these pathogens. Fortunately, within a simple soil sample gathered in a plastic bag we are able to find thousands of different bacteria with potential pathogen-fighting abilities. The Small World Initiative (starting in 2012) has been recruiting students around the globe to help in the effort to find bacteria with the potential to create novel antibiotics. I decided to gather my soil on a weekend trip to Eureka Springs, Arkansas-- a town known for its natural springs (with rumored healing properties). After making serial dilutions, growing fields of thousands of bacterial colonies on 50% TSA to find zones of inhibition, and then screening 23 potential candidates against ESKAPE pathogen close relatives, I found one candidate that appears to halt the growth of Enterococcus faecalis. Attempts to isolate this particularly sticky bacteria through streak plating prove difficult but I am confident that I will be able to get it on its own in order to discover its gene sequence, its close relatives, and find out what component it produces to help fight against E. faecalis.
Comments
The faculty supervisor for this project was Heather Seitz, Biology.