Abstract

Multidrug resistant bacteria pose a threat to human health due to overprescription and misuse of antibiotics, an industry of agriculture reliance, and the decline of novel antibiotic discovery. According to the CDC, at least two million people in the United States each year are infected with multidrug resistant bacteria and more than 23,000 succumb to those infections. Natural product (NP) isolation remains a robust source of novel antibiotics even though rediscovery is an ongoing problem. This research reports the isolation of 101 bacteria from soil samples collected in the Southwestern United States and subsequent antibiotic screening of those bacteria. Bacteria from a library of isolates found to be strong antibiotic producers were then identified by 16S rDNA analysis and subjected to scale up and extraction to isolate the produced antibiotic. Currently, antibiotics produced by three bacteria, a Bacillus strain (SS729), a Microbacterium strain (SS452B) and a Pseudomonas strain (SS827B) are being characterized. SS452B was found to have antibiotic activity against Gram-positive Staphylococcus aureus while the other two, SS729 and SS827B were found to have antibiotic activity against both Gram-positive Staphylococcus aureus and Gram-negative Escherichia coli in liquid inhibition assays.

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