Antibiotic Producing Bacteria in Soil Samples at the University of Dayton

Antibiotic Producing Bacteria in Soil Samples at the University of Dayton

Presenter(s)

Erin Elise Pellot

Comments

This poster reflects research conducted as part of a course project designed to give students experience in the research process.

Description

Within recent years there has been a rise in the number of antibiotic resistant bacterial strains. These resistant strains have no known treatments and thus pose a threat to society. Bacterial strains form resistance by evolving past the mechanisms behind a given antibiotic. With bacteria’s unrelenting ability to evolve and adapt there is an ever present need for new antibiotics. To relieve this need, the Tiny World Initiative was formed to provide students the chance to conduct antibiotic research in the classroom setting. For this in class research experience, an on-campus soil sample was collected and analyzed for possible antibiotic producing microbes. After cultivating and selecting bacterial colonies, samples were tested against two pathogen safe relatives of the ESKAPE pathogens. ESKAPE is an acronym to describe the six most antibiotic resistant opportunistic pathogens which pose a threat to society. The ESKAPE relatives tested against in this experiment were Pseudomonas putida and Staphylococcus epidermidis. After finding seven antibiotic producing colonies the samples were put through multiple classification tests which include a gram stain, catalase test, hemolysis, triple sugar iron, mannitol salt agar, MacConky agar, citrate, gelatinase and a motility test. After classifying the samples they were tested against Eukaryotic cells in the hopes of finding a safe antibiotic treatment.

Publication Date

4-24-2019

Project Designation

Course Project

Primary Advisor

Erica Marie Rinehart, Yvonne Y. Sun

Primary Advisor's Department

Biology

Keywords

Stander Symposium project

Antibiotic Producing Bacteria in Soil Samples at the University of Dayton

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