Organisms Commons^™

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 …

Testing Bacterial Antibiotic Production Under Carbohydrate And Protein Starvation, Briley Baird

Honors Theses

Bacteria produce antibiotics when they are under stress, including starvation stress. Bacteria were tested under carbohydrate and protein starvation against Bacillus subtilis and Escherichia coli (due to the respective Gram positivity and negativity), in order to check for antibiotic production. The bacteria being tested were isolated by past Microbiology classes and stored in a -80°C freezer in the basement of Jones Science Center at Ouachita Baptist University. These test bacteria were grown on tryptic soy agar (TSA) to produce isolated bacterial colonies. Samples of isolated test colonies were then grown under conditions of carbohydrate starvation (M9 salts agar with 0.1 …