Week 2 (9/12/22 - 9/16/22): Minimum Inhibitory Concentration
Introduction: D. aquaticus is an aerobic mesophile that is best described as rod-shaped. It stains pink on a gram stain, making it gram- negative with a thin layer of peptidoglycan in the cell wall. The Deinococcus genus is well studied, however, there is still much to learn about D. aquaticus and the antibiotic that it responds to. To analyze this, a test called the Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) is performed. The MIC test determines the lowest concentration of antibiotic that can be added to a solution to inhibit bacterial growth. This differs from the Minimum Bactericidal Concentration because the goal for the MIC is not to kill the bacteria, but to prevent bacteria from growing. MIC testing for D. aquaticus includes creating a dilution range of the chosen antibiotic and incubating at 30 degrees C. In this MIC test, we used three different antibiotics that all act as protein synthesis inhibitors. Chloramphenicol (CM) is an antibiotic...