Antibiotics in the Soil Environment

Soil contains millions of living organisms. One gram of soil contains at least 1,000 bacterial species. Microorganisms found in soil have yielded antibiotics that can kill pathogens resistant to multiple drugs. In the past few decades there has been a rising issue in the pharmaceutical industry: antibiotic resistance. Antibiotic resistance occurs when germs like bacteria and fungi develop the ability to defeat drugs designed to kill them. If antibiotic resistance continues at this rate, it is going to be extremely difficult to treat infections and diseases. Antibiotic resistance is why it is so important to continue to study these microorganisms in the soil that produce metabolites that can inhibit pathogens. In January, I went to a flower bed in my front yard and gathered 1 gram of soil and have been studying it over the past few months. I have tested it against the safe relatives to 6 ESKAPE pathogens. The microorganism that I continued my research with has shown the ability to inhibit Escherichia coli. I put both my candidate and E. coli on an agar plate and let them grow in an incubator for a few days. The E. coli was not able to grow into my candidate and inhabit it. There are multiple things that I can do to identify what this microorganism is. Such as DNA sequencing, bacterial staining, and comparing the characteristics to other organisms