ABSTRACT FOR PROJECT

SOURCE FOR COLLECTION OF SOIL:

1. Rhizosphere of a plant
2. Soil from forest
SCREENING METHODS:
One gram of the soil sample is weighed and diluted serially up to 10 -5
with distilled water. Dilutions of 10-2 and 10-4 were taken and
introduced into differently labelled sterile Petri-dishes. Distinct colonies
were selected from the cultured plates after incubation onto sterile
culture media to obtain a subculture of each colony, using a sterile
inoculating loop and inoculating needle for the bacterial species and
fungal species respectively. Slants are prepared as stock cultures and
kept in the refrigerator for further use.
SCREENING OF SOIL ISOLATES FOR ANTIBIOTIC ACTIVITY:
A sensitivity assay is carried out to determine the antibiotic producing
ability of some of the isolates (Bacteria and fungi) against the other
test organisms isolated.
For the bacterial sensitivity test, the isolate being screened for
antibiotic production are streaked horizontally at a particular portion
on sterile nutrient agar while the other organisms on which the activity
is tested against are streaked vertically very close to the screened one.
Plates are incubated for 24 hours at 370C, during which any substance
produced by the screened isolate was expected to lyse the tested
organisms growing perpendicularly and produce zones of inhibition.
For the fungal isolate, the Sabouraud dextrose agar plates ( Sabouraud
agar is a type of agar containing peptones. It is used to cultivate dermatophytes
and other types of fungi, and can also grow filamentous bacteria such as Nocardia)

are seeded with the test organisms to be inhibited on one end of the
plate and the isolate to be screened is smeared nearby the other. The
plates are incubated at room temperature for 42-72 hours.