Abstract
Currently we are facing the imminent threat of antibiotic resistance in pathogenic bacteria that negatively impacts the human population. The increasing scarcity of new antibiotics, along with the growing levels of antimicrobial resistant bacteria, are resulting in a global public health crisis that the World Health Organization (WHO) has estimated to have directly contributed to 1.27 million deaths in 2019. The Tiny Earth students at Sacramento State, from the Diversity of Microorganisms course Bio 145, work to isolate bacteria with antibiotic production properties from the campus. In Spring 2023, the students collected 55 bacterial isolates that can produce antibiotics; however, there is variability in the conditions needed for these bacteria to produce antibiotic molecules. We hypothesize that the type of growth media used influences the antibiotic production of the Spring 2023 isolates. The implementation of this project started with resuscitation of Bio 145 strains and verification of antibiotic production, and continued into various experimental schemes performed on several growth media types to determine whether or not a difference in growth could be observed. We tested nine select isolates against six different types of growth media, and observed variability of antibiotic metabolite production patterns.