Presenters: Bryson Edwards ; Jacob Warr ; Baylor Steward ; Sabrina Saley ; Branden Peterson
Authors: Bryson Edwards, Jacob Warr, Baylor Steward, Sabrina Saley, Branden Peterson, Kaz Horrocks
Faculty Advisor: Geoff Zahn
Institution: Utah Valley University
There were more than 20,000 deaths and over 119,000 recorded cases of Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) infection in 2017, according to recent data published by the CDC. Even more worrisome is new data reporting that silent carriers of MRSA have twice the mortality rate of individuals without the deadly bacteria. Drugs that previously worked to eradicate MRSA are becoming less effective because the bacteria is adapting and becoming more resistant to methicillin and similar treatments. Many researchers have found potential candidates of fungi that have proven to have some antimicrobial activity against MRSA. For example, it has been shown that Aspermerodione from Ascomycetes worked as an inhibitor of penicillin-binding protein 2a, which in turn inhibited MRSA. It has also been shown that the nanofibers from the deep marine fungusFusarium sp.also showed antimicrobial activity against MRSA. These and other examples illustrate that fungi have strong potential for the discovery of MRSA-antagonist compounds. Here, we report the results from bioprospecting for antagonistic fungi across 10 different, high trafficked areas in the Utah Valley. Some of our areas of interest include a sewage treatment facility, the UVU wrestling room, and sediment from the Provo River. Our sampling methodology includes collecting 2 samples from each site, (two replicants per sample), to total 40 samples. After culturing and isolating the collected fungi, we introduced standardized disks impregnated by the fungi into MRSA culture plates and measured any zones of inhibition. Any fungi showing potential MRSA antagonism will then be identified using Sanger sequencing of the ITS2 region of rDNA.