As you know, the lack of still-effective antibiotics is quickly becoming a global crisis. In fact, researchers say in the absence of new therapies, mortality rates due to untreatable infections are predicted to rise more than tenfold by 2050. So where might researchers discover these new “drugs”? A starting point for answering this question is to look at how researchers discovered new treatments in the past ... by looking in good oldfashioned soil!
Indeed, the very first group of antibiotics ever discovered, penicillin, comes from a fungal decomposer found in forest soils across the world. In the mid-20th century, many other well-known antibiotics, including vancomycin, were isolated from soil bacteria. Nearly a century after scientists dug up penicillin, researchers are turning once more to the soil for new pharmaceuticals. The search will be enhanced by the use of powerful new technologies such as DNA sequencing.
If social media feels overwhelming these days, it’s nothing compared to the chatter going on beneath your feet. Pick up a handful of soil and you’ll be holding five times as many microbes (tiny, living organisms such as bacteria) in the palm of your hand as there are people on Twitter. Like Twitter users, soil microbes have a lot to say about the world around them. Microbes talk to each other by dropping small molecules (e.g. hormones) into the soil around them. Soil is the most biodiverse habitat on the planet, containing upwards of 10 billion bacteria and fungi in a single gram. It’s also a vicious battlefield, where microbes are engaged in an endless chemical arms race, exuding all sorts of antibiotics and toxins as they compete for resources.
Plants living in soil can interpret the messages in the "intermicrobial twitter-sphere" as signals to grow out their root system, germinate seeds, or grow their stalks faster. The way soil microbes interact with each other has a huge impact on how plants grow. In fact, microbes can protect plants from disease and prevent plants from drying out during extended droughts.
While studying the scope and importance of soil microbiology, students will learn that the broader soil-plant-animal ecosystem must considered while examining specific bacteria and growth inhibiting interactions.
This camp takes students beyond the tendency to consider only the most obvious causes of an effect. Students realize that non-obvious microbes are the primary decomposers, that things don't "fall apart" on their own, and that visible detritivores, such as earthworms and sow bugs, are responsible for only a small percentage of decomposition.
Lab Protocols
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