The Search for Antimicrobials in Soil

Antibiotic resistance is a major issue in today’s society as it complicates infection treatment and renders antibiotics useless. After collecting a soil sample from a children’s playground, I ran many tests in hopes of discovering new antimicrobials against safe relatives of ESKAPE (Enterococcus faecium, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumonia, Acinetobacter baumannii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Enterobacter species) pathogens. After serially diluting the soil, I created several master plates of the bacteria that were most fascinating, hoping that they would continue to grow. After the growth, I tested them against the safe relatives and discovered that one of my twelve candidates, CC25A1, had a zone of inhibition against Staphylococcus epidermidis, a close relative to MRSA. I will continue my research by conducting a Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) on CC25A1, which will amplify a small portion of its genome to determine the type of microbe it is.