Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Antimicrobial Activity Of Bacterial Virus Components: An Empirical Investigation Of The Killing Capacity Of Toxins From Burkholderia, Kyle Walny

Honors Projects

Given the growing issue in healthcare of antibiotic resistance, effective and safe alternative treatment methods are required. One of these possible alternative treatment methods is bacteriotoxins including bacteriocins and tailocins. The focus of this study is a bacteriotoxin from Burkholderia cenocepacia (ATCC 25608), which was induced for toxin using a modified UV light induction procedure and tested against a variety of Pseudomonas and Burkholderia for its killing capacity. Various other pathogenic strains were then induced with UV light and tested. The results showed that the toxin from ATCC 25608 was very effective against most of the Burkholderia tested and warrants …

Antifungal Defense Molecules From Bacterial Symbionts Of North American Trachymyrmex Ants, Georgia Scherer

CMC Senior Theses

Defensive symbioses, in which microbes provide molecular defenses for an animal host, hold great potential as untapped sources of therapeutically useful antibiotics. Fungus-growing ants use antifungal defenses from bacterial symbionts to suppress pathogenic fungi in their nests. Preliminary chemical investigations of symbiotic bacteria from this large family of ants have uncovered novel antifungal molecules with therapeutic potential, such as dentigerumycin and selvamicin.

In this study, the bacterial symbionts of North American Trachymyrmex fungus-growing ants are investigated for antifungal molecules. Plate-based bioassays using ecologically-relevant fungal pathogens confirmed that these bacteria have antifungal activity. In order to purify and identify the antifungal …