Finding the Future Antibiotics Within Soil Bacteria

Soil was collected to search for bacteria capable of becoming the next antibiotic. The soil was then diluted 10^4 times and placed on dishes for bacteria levels to be observed. Within this experiment, only plates 10^5 and 10^4 were countable. A master plate was then made with candidates picked. Those candidates went through a process called antibiotic screening. Lastly, metabolic testing, PCR, and gel electrophoresis were used to determine the identity of the candidate.