Faculty Mentor(s)
Dr. Vicki Isola, Biology
Document Type
Poster
Event Date
4-14-2023
Abstract
Multi-drug resistant (MDR) bacteria are strains of bacteria that are resistant to multiple types of antibiotics and pose a serious public health threat. Our research group has developed a novel way to rapidly screen soil bacteria isolates for antimicrobial chemical production in a clear and reproducible manner. We examined the effects of certain variables on our method including: 1) agar type on antimicrobial diffusion, 2) agar depth on antimicrobial diffusion, 3) age of the soil isolate on the amount of antimicrobial produced, and 4) soil isolate placement on the inhibition of bacterial growth. Our combined results led to the creation of a novel "bilayer plate" combining two stacked agar layers of different agar types and the use of a novel "cross inoculation" technique to screen soil isolates for the production of antimicrobial substances. This new method, which we call "The Isola-Slayton Method," was used in the identification of several soil isolates that produced substances which inhibited multiple ESKAPE bacterial species (a set of bacterial pathogens that often cause MDR healthcare-associated infections). This new method may provide a quick and effective way to test microbial isolates in the pursuit of new antibiotics.
Recommended Citation
Repository citation: Slayton, Sean, "Development of a Novel Method for Identifying Antibiotic Producing Microbes From the Soil" (2023). 22nd Annual Celebration of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity (2023). Paper 34.
https://digitalcommons.hope.edu/curca_22/34
April 14, 2023. Copyright © 2023 Hope College, Holland, Michigan.
Comments
This research was supported by the Hope College Biology Department.