There has been a dramatic increase in antibiotic-resistant bacteria around the globe, resulting in higher levels of mortality directly from bacterial infections. Each year in the United States alone, about two million people are infected with antibiotic-resistant bacteria, responsible for tens of thousands of deaths. Because of this, there is an urgent need to expand the arsenal of antibiotics currently available. To discover new compounds with antibiotic activity, bacteria from undisturbed soil at an early Roman archeological site on the Island of Mallorca, Spain were isolated, grown in liquid cultures, extracted, fractioned, and tested. Extracts able to stop the growth of Staph aureus, E. coli and Pythium ultimum were studied further with the goal of determining the molecular structure of the compounds. Once assayed, thin layer chromatography (TLC) and flash chromatography were used to fractionate the extracts. Resulting fractions with activity were studied further. In the future, we hope to get enough product to determine molecular structure and identify active antibiotics via mass spectroscopy, IR, 1H and 13C NMR spectroscopy. Two of the three crude bacteria samples tested so far show activity in antibiotic and anti-fungal assays. Future investigation will be necessary to determine the structure of potentially undiscovered molecules holding antibiotic properties.

Study of antibiotic compounds from soil actinomycetes

2019 Spring National Meeting

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