Phenotypic Antibiotic Resistance Science Fair Projects for Eighth Graders

Discover what leads E. coli to develop a drug resistance to antibiotics...

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E. coli

Working with hazardous materials like E. coli requires special precautions. You do not want to eat or drink while working on this type of science fair project.

Test bacteria on any surface with the Surface Microbes Science Fair Projects Kit: after hand sanitizer, hands, disinfectant.. for example. You can use antibiotics to test the bacteria too.

Anytime you want to test how many bacteria are On Top of a surface like a desk, skin, chicken, computer keyboard, bread dough, a hard piece of chocolate, cheese, inside of an animal's cheek, etc. then use the surface experimenter kit. The kit will let you calculate how many bacteria there are per unit surface area on the object. You can also test for e-coli, however, only the microbe water kit will let you distinguish e. coli from other coliforms and bacteria.

Objectives/Goals

The objective of this experiment was to determine what concentration of salicylate can induce phenotypic antibiotic resistance to ampicillin in E. Coli.

Methods/Materials

E. Coli (strain K12) were grown in liquid cultures of 1 mM, 3mM, 5mM, and 0 mM (control) of salicylic acid. They were then plated and tested for resistance against ampicillin using the Kirby-Bauer disk diffusion method.

Results

Bacteria grown in solutions of 3 mM and 5 mM developed equal levels of resistance, with zones of inhibition 29.69% smaller than the control. Bacteria grown in a solution of 1 mM showed zones of inhibition 19.92% smaller than the control.

Conclusions/Discussion

Salicylates are chemicals that are widely used in acne creams, toothpastes, and agriculture, as well as the active ingredient in aspirin. Most of us have no idea that this ubiquitous molecule renders bacteria even more dangerous to us. Many other areas of research that may stem from this study include the time frame of salicylate-induced resistance, inducing phenotypic resistance directly from commercial products, and whether culturing bacteria in a mixture of ampicillin and salicylate would induce phenotypic or genotypic resistance. 3rd party contributor

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For Science Fair Report
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E. coli experiments are very valuable to science and can score well at science fairs.