Antibiotic Producing Soil Bacteria

Antibiotic resistance in microorganisms has become an overwhelming problem nationally and globally. According to the CDC, “Each year in the United States, at least 2 million people become infected with bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics, and at least 23,000 people die each year as a direct result of these infections.” To combat this, antibiotic producing bacteria can be found within soil, cultured and used medicinally against these difficult microbes. The purpose of this research is to obtain a soil sample of our own and to observe whether the bacteria in the soil produce antibiotics or not. The way to do this was to culture the soil bacteria, determine which bacteria had potential zones of inhibition, isolate them on a separate plate, run antibiotic screenings with candidates against gram-negative and gram-positive organisms, run metabolic tests, and sequence the bacteria. With all of this done, it is hoped to find a new bacterium that could solve this ever-growing antibiotic resistance problem.