Development of a red fluorescent reporter strain of Citrobacter freundii for the assessment of Klebsiella pneumoniae bacteriocin efficacy
Faculty Mentor
Sean Fox
Mentor Home Department
Health Sciences
Short Abstract
The prevalence of antimicrobial resistant pathogens is an ever-increasing threat to public health and limiting treatment options for medical professionals. The discovery of new clinical methods to combat these resistant strains of bacteria is only becoming more important with time. The study of polymicrobial interactions provides distinct avenues for the discovery of such new methods. For example, some bacteria, in an effort to gain an advantage over their competitors, produce bacteriocins that show promising bactericidal effects upon opportunistic pathogens. However, considerable additional research is necessary to determine the efficacy and safety of such methods. Klebsiella pneumoniae is a Gram-negative bacterium found in the human normal flora and has been found by our laboratory to release a bacteriocin with cidal effects on Citrobacter freundii. Also a member of the Enterobacteriaceae family, C. freundii is a Gram-negative bacterium that is an increasing cause of opportunistic and nosocomial infections, with some strains being found to have resistance to carbapenems. In this study, a strain of C. freundii containing a red fluorescent plasmid (RFP) was constructed in an attempt to better understand and illustrate the effectiveness of the K. pneumoniae bacteriocin. Optical density (OD600) and colorimetric (MTT) assays were performed and showed decreased growth in C. freundii wild-type and C. freundii RFP with the bacteriocin present. Fluorescent-based growth assays performed also showed similar results on the effectiveness of the bacteriocin against growth. Confocal and fluorescent imaging was used to illustrate the presence of the RFP as well as the decrease in growth with the presence of the bacteriocin. The findings of the study and the creation of a fluorescent reporter strain of C. freundii may aid in the advancement of research to use bacteriocins for novel treatments against multi-drug resistant strains of C. freundii.
Category
Health
Start Date
5-4-2024 11:30 AM
End Date
5-4-2024 12:30 PM
Location
D.P. Culp Center Room 219
Development of a red fluorescent reporter strain of Citrobacter freundii for the assessment of Klebsiella pneumoniae bacteriocin efficacy
D.P. Culp Center Room 219
The prevalence of antimicrobial resistant pathogens is an ever-increasing threat to public health and limiting treatment options for medical professionals. The discovery of new clinical methods to combat these resistant strains of bacteria is only becoming more important with time. The study of polymicrobial interactions provides distinct avenues for the discovery of such new methods. For example, some bacteria, in an effort to gain an advantage over their competitors, produce bacteriocins that show promising bactericidal effects upon opportunistic pathogens. However, considerable additional research is necessary to determine the efficacy and safety of such methods. Klebsiella pneumoniae is a Gram-negative bacterium found in the human normal flora and has been found by our laboratory to release a bacteriocin with cidal effects on Citrobacter freundii. Also a member of the Enterobacteriaceae family, C. freundii is a Gram-negative bacterium that is an increasing cause of opportunistic and nosocomial infections, with some strains being found to have resistance to carbapenems. In this study, a strain of C. freundii containing a red fluorescent plasmid (RFP) was constructed in an attempt to better understand and illustrate the effectiveness of the K. pneumoniae bacteriocin. Optical density (OD600) and colorimetric (MTT) assays were performed and showed decreased growth in C. freundii wild-type and C. freundii RFP with the bacteriocin present. Fluorescent-based growth assays performed also showed similar results on the effectiveness of the bacteriocin against growth. Confocal and fluorescent imaging was used to illustrate the presence of the RFP as well as the decrease in growth with the presence of the bacteriocin. The findings of the study and the creation of a fluorescent reporter strain of C. freundii may aid in the advancement of research to use bacteriocins for novel treatments against multi-drug resistant strains of C. freundii.