Metabolic Profiling A Drug Subsisting Gram‐Negative Bacteria

Abstract

Drug resistant bacteria are a serious and growing concern facing medicine in the 21st century. Indeed, antibiotic usage provides a real and dangerous example of natural selection with pathogenic bacteria quickly adapting to survive drug treatment. Until recently, hospitals were thought to be the reservoirs of these resistance genes and bacteria were considered resistant if they could avoid death or damage to the cells. However, in 2008 bacteria were isolated from soils that could “eat” antibiotics, presumably using them to support growth. Taking this one step farther, we have isolated from the upper Susquehanna River bacteria capable of growth on penicillin G as a sole carbon source. The objective of our study is to screen the metabolism of one of these isolates by GC‐MS techniques under two different growth conditions: drug as a single carbon source or high nutrient broth. By screening the metabolism, a metabolic fingerprint for each growth condition will be created. This fingerprint can then be used to elicit information about the metabolic mechanism by which the bacterium is subsisting on drug. In addition, since the bacterium found to subsist on antibiotics was isolated from the local watershed, the mechanism could provide information in regard to the metabolic fate of antibiotics in the environment. This project was funded by Hartwick College and the Otsego County Conservation Association.