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Deferred Growth Inhibition Assay to Quantify the Effect of Bacteria-derived Antimicrobials on Competition
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Improved deferred antagonism technique for detecting antibiosis
J M Klein1, V O Stockwell2, G V Minsavage1
1Department of Plant Pathology, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, USA.
Letters in Applied Microbiology
|June 8, 2020
Summary
A new method simplifies detecting antibiotic production by adding antibiotics to soft agar overlays. This modification efficiently screens for antibiosis, saving time and resources in microbial research.
Area of Science:
- Microbiology
- Plant Pathology
Background:
- Deferred antagonism assays are standard for detecting microbial antibiotic production.
- Current methods require killing producer cells, adding time and complexity.
Purpose of the Study:
- To present a modified soft agar overlay technique for efficient antibiosis screening.
- To demonstrate a cost-effective and rapid method for detecting antibiotic activity.
Main Methods:
- Incorporating antibiotics into soft agar overlays to inhibit producer strains.
- Utilizing resistant indicator strains and sensitive producer strains.
- Testing the method with bacterial spot and fire blight pathogens.
Main Results:
- The modified technique effectively inhibited producer strains without harming indicator strains.
- Successful screening of antibiotic production in three bacterial systems.
- Demonstrated reproducibility and efficiency of the new method.
Conclusions:
- This modified deferred antagonism assay offers a rapid, consistent, and cost-effective approach.
- It simplifies the detection of antibiosis by eliminating producer cell removal steps.
- The technique is valuable for screening antibiotic production in diverse bacterial systems.
