Halotolerance: An indicator of Antibiotic Production?
Poster Number
18A
Research or Creativity Area
Natural Sciences
Abstract
Fungi have adapted to survive in various habitats including marine and freshwater environments. Marine fungi have even developed mechanisms to tolerate freshwater conditions (Jones, 2022). Accordingly, the fungi in the Carlson Lab collection were classified based on their tolerance or requirement for marine conditions. This led us to wonder if there was a correlation between halotolerance/salt-obligation and antibiotic production. The library contains 29 salt-obligate fungal species and 8 halotolerant fungal species - additional screening is underway. To determine if a fungal strain isolated in the lab is salt obligate, marine derived fungi are plated on Potato Dextrose Agarase (PDA) made with DI water, to observe the growth. If the fungi exhibits significant growth impairment or inhibition the fungi is classified as salt obligate. Conversely, freshwater fungi grown on salt PDA that have no growth in media with salt are known as halotolerant fungi. To test for antibiotic production, fungi were cultured in liquid media and grown on a rotary shaker 110 rpm to form a hyphae layer. Fungal extracts were tested for antimicrobial activity by the disc diffusion method (Khan, 2019). Our goal is to understand if testing our organisms for salt tolerance is a useful indicator of antibiotic production.
Location
Don and Karen DeRosa University Center (DUC) Poster Hall
Start Date
27-4-2024 10:30 AM
End Date
27-4-2024 12:30 PM
Halotolerance: An indicator of Antibiotic Production?
Don and Karen DeRosa University Center (DUC) Poster Hall
Fungi have adapted to survive in various habitats including marine and freshwater environments. Marine fungi have even developed mechanisms to tolerate freshwater conditions (Jones, 2022). Accordingly, the fungi in the Carlson Lab collection were classified based on their tolerance or requirement for marine conditions. This led us to wonder if there was a correlation between halotolerance/salt-obligation and antibiotic production. The library contains 29 salt-obligate fungal species and 8 halotolerant fungal species - additional screening is underway. To determine if a fungal strain isolated in the lab is salt obligate, marine derived fungi are plated on Potato Dextrose Agarase (PDA) made with DI water, to observe the growth. If the fungi exhibits significant growth impairment or inhibition the fungi is classified as salt obligate. Conversely, freshwater fungi grown on salt PDA that have no growth in media with salt are known as halotolerant fungi. To test for antibiotic production, fungi were cultured in liquid media and grown on a rotary shaker 110 rpm to form a hyphae layer. Fungal extracts were tested for antimicrobial activity by the disc diffusion method (Khan, 2019). Our goal is to understand if testing our organisms for salt tolerance is a useful indicator of antibiotic production.
