Antibiotics in the Soil

To find a potential antibiotic, I conducted a soil experiment. This research is important to find potential antibiotics to block ESKAPE pathogens, but we used safe relatives to conduct this experiment. I took a sample from the soil in my front yard and performed multiple tests and experiments. My first technique to get a good start on this was to serial dilute my original soil sample. I made four dilution plates and created eight screening plates. Each screening plate had a different candidate from my dilution plates, to see which will inhibit something the best. My final screening plate that had Bacillus subtilis, which is a safe relative of Bacillus anthracis that causes anthrax, had a great zone of inhibition. To further extend my research of my microbe, I used the Gram Staining method to see what it really was. I reviewed my results, and they showed that I was dealing with a spore forming microbe. I will conduct a spore stain to get further information about this microbe.