Scholarly Commons

Determining Ideal Growing Conditions for Antimicrobial-producing Actinomycetes from Centralia, PA

It is estimated that over 99% of bacteria have yet to be cultured, particularly in extreme environments such as the high-temperature soils overlying the coalmine fire in Centralia, PA. These undiscovered bacteria may provide an important source of new antimicrobials to help us face the crisis of antibiotic resistance that could devastate humans and their food sources. Our goal is to find combinations of media types and pretreatments that will create the best environment for growing novel antimicrobial-producing actinomycetes in the lab. Soil samples from fire-affected and unaffected sites in Centralia are being used to inoculate actinomycetes agar and humic acid-vitamin (HVA) agar plates, with or without a phenol pretreatment. The resulting isolates are being identified using 16S rRNA gene sequencing and novel isolates will be analyzed for antimicrobial potential.