Hampton Woods Soil Analysis: Bacterium and the Search for Anti-Biotics
Location
CoLab, OCB 100
Start Date
27-4-2018 9:00 AM
Document Type
Poster
Description
Today, the fight against multi-drug resistant bacteria is more challenging than it has ever been. The need for new anti-biotics is critical for the future of our population. In this research project I set out to find potential anti-biotic producing candidates by analyzing soil from my apartment complex’s grounds. The site of my soil source was near a small pond where a flock of geese roam and live freely. Their waste products deposited in the soil; and the bacteria they shed were sure to provide a strongly diverse population of bacteria for this project. Through a series of water dilutions, agar plating, and macro-analysis I was able to search for “zones of inhibition”, or indicators that bacterium were creating potential anti-biotic chemicals. After many plates and dilutions, I found fourteen potential anti-biotic producing candidates. I created screening plates with each of these candidates against five of the six ESKAPE pathogen relatives in order to determine if these unknown chemicals also inhibited known pathogens in addition to the other unknown bacteria from my soil source. It was concluded that one of my candidates was indeed effective against fighting an ESKAPE pathogen relative. Through further metabolic testing, staining, and phylogenetic analysis, I will be able to determine the species of this unknown bacterium. The chemical that this bacterium produces will also be analyzed and tested against the actual ESKAPE pathogen later, hopefully with a bactericidal result and thus being confirmed as a new anti-biotic.
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Hampton Woods Soil Analysis: Bacterium and the Search for Anti-Biotics
CoLab, OCB 100
Today, the fight against multi-drug resistant bacteria is more challenging than it has ever been. The need for new anti-biotics is critical for the future of our population. In this research project I set out to find potential anti-biotic producing candidates by analyzing soil from my apartment complex’s grounds. The site of my soil source was near a small pond where a flock of geese roam and live freely. Their waste products deposited in the soil; and the bacteria they shed were sure to provide a strongly diverse population of bacteria for this project. Through a series of water dilutions, agar plating, and macro-analysis I was able to search for “zones of inhibition”, or indicators that bacterium were creating potential anti-biotic chemicals. After many plates and dilutions, I found fourteen potential anti-biotic producing candidates. I created screening plates with each of these candidates against five of the six ESKAPE pathogen relatives in order to determine if these unknown chemicals also inhibited known pathogens in addition to the other unknown bacteria from my soil source. It was concluded that one of my candidates was indeed effective against fighting an ESKAPE pathogen relative. Through further metabolic testing, staining, and phylogenetic analysis, I will be able to determine the species of this unknown bacterium. The chemical that this bacterium produces will also be analyzed and tested against the actual ESKAPE pathogen later, hopefully with a bactericidal result and thus being confirmed as a new anti-biotic.
Comments
The faculty supervisor for this project was Heather Seitz, Biology.