Small World Initiative Jason Heintskill
Kayla Ramnarine
Sarah DeMello
Caroline Lacagnina
BSC1005L: Life Science Lab
4/15/18
Small World Initiative
SWI combines technology and science to further our studies and improve the
healthcare field.
● SWI was developed by Dr. Jo Handelsman at Yale University in 2012
● Discovery-based biology course
● Students around the world contribute to creating new antibiotics.
What are microbes?
● Microbes are the source of many diseases, but also provide many benefits.
● Microbes are in and on our bodies and play a huge role in our overall health.
● Helps recycle nutrients
● Bioremediation
● Research tools
● Industrial applications
● ANTIBIOTICS!
Antibiotic Crisis ● No new classes of antibiotics have been discovered
since the 1980s.
● Over 2 million drug resistant bacterial illnesses
exist.
● $35 billion economic losses per year.
ESKAPE pathogens are six organisms that cause
devastating illnesses and most of the antibiotic resistant
infections.
● Chose 2 ESKAPE safe relatives (1 gram- 1 gram +)
Sarah Kayla Caroline Jason
Gram + S.epi S.epi S.epi S.epi
Gram - A.bay E.coli A.bay P.put
● Week later, checked for zones of inhibition
Sarah Kayla Caroline Jason
Zone yes/no Yes No No No
Testing Safe Relatives
Finding our Zone of Inhibition
● If we had at least one zone of inhibition, we streaked for singles
- If we had no zone of inhibition, we switched to a TA plate
● We received our PCR reactions to load in to
the gel
● Cut up the agar covered in bacteria
● Put dry ice in then pumped 10 ml of water and
15 ml ethyl acetate
Sim Tube
● Take from the same colony stab a needle
into the sim tube.
Sarah Kayla Caroline Jason
Motility Yes Yes No No
Catalase Production ● Pick one colony from your master streak
plate
● Add one drop of 3% H2O2 to the colony
smear
● See if our bacteria produced Catalase
Sarah Kayla Caroline Jason
Catalase
Production
Yes Yes Yes No
● Flood smear with Crystal Violet and Safranin
Gram Staining
Results Purple: Gram Positive Pink: Gram Negative
Jason ✓
Kayla ✓
Caroline ✓
Sarah ✓
Organic Extraction
Picture from : Viltes
powerpoint
Observing MacConkey Plates and Sim Tube
● If the growth on MacConkey agar was red = Lactose fermentation
● Black/Brown color on sim tube = Hydrogen sulfide production
● If the reagent turns cherry red = Metabolizing tryptophan.
Sarah Kayla Caroline Jason
Lactose
Fermentation Yes Yes Yes Yes
Hydrogen Sulfide
Production No No Yes No
Metabolizing
Tryptophan No No No No
Data
Student Own Soil GPS
Coordinates
CFU/g Single Colonies
Sarah Yes Latitude:
26.3685
Longitude
:-80.1030
1.85E+07 Yes
Kayla No 26.3988889, -
80.20111111111
112
3.20E+06 Yes
Jason Yes Latitude:26.3680
Longitude
:-80.1040
1.92E+07 Yes
Caroline No 26.405277,-
80.217896
1.52E+07 Yes
Antibiotic Activity Results
Student Medium Temperature Light or Dark Antibiotic
Activity Results
Kayla BHI 30 Dark Bacillus subtilis
Jason TSA 28 Dark Staphylococcus
epidermidis
Sarah BHI 28 Dark None
Caroline BHI 28 Dark Bacillus subtilis
DNA Sequence Results
Jason Caroline Kayla Sarah
PCR Product
& Sequence
No, 124-TMJK-SWI27FHT
Yes,
22-CRL-SWI27FHT
Yes,
8-KNR-SWI27FHT
Yes,
Organism with
Closest Match to
DNA Sequence
Pseudomonas
sp. strain SB904
16S ribosomal
RNA gene,
partial sequence
Bacillus
Aryabhattai
strain WBY-6
16S ribosomal
RNA gene,
partial sequence
Bacillus cereus strain
AIMST 1.Cit.6 16S
ribosomal RNA gene,
partial sequence
Bacillus
aryabhattai 16S
ribosomal RNA
gene, partial
sequence
Percent
Identity
99% 98% 99% 98%