Antibiotics in the Soil

There has been an increasing concern around the world with antibiotic resistance, which we have been studying in our microbiology class. Discovery of new antibiotics has often happened from soil, which is what we studied. I collected a sample of soil from my backyard and performed a serial dilution of the sample to plate on agar plates to observe possible antibiotic candidates. A master plate was created with promising candidates to test against E.S.K.A.P.E. relatives for zones of inhibition. Unfortunately, my candidates did not have any zones of inhibition with E.S.K.A.P.E. relatives but had one successful zone of inhibition with Bacillus subtilis. I will begin more testing to gain more knowledge of this candidate.