Finding Microbes Throughout a Soil Sample

The purpose of this experiment was to show the magnitude and the diversity of microbes in 1 gram of soil. It is important because it gives a glimpse of how wide and vast the world of microbes can be and shows how scientists find different microbes to make into antibiotics for medicine. This is really important since the world uses so many antibiotics. Scientists have to know how many microbes are in each antibiotic and which ones. The results showed a vast number of microbes with countless different species of bacteria that live in soil. The soil sample was collected in a backyard in Shawnee, KS and then it was used for serial dilution. Serial Dilution is a way to dilute the soil sample into a more manageable size so that the soil can be observed and then data can be gathered by the researcher for the experiment. In this experiment, individual colonies were seen along with several antibiotic candidates. The cfu/ml was able to be counted and calculated for each sample. Metabolic testing, PCR, and gel electrophoresis were used to determine the identity of the candidate.