Abstract:
Cordyceps militaris is a fungus which has a host of beneficial properties, with its anti-bacterial features being one of the more noteworthy, yet little is known about the bacteria it works against, how powerful it is against the bacteria, and the mechanisms it employs to fight off bacteria. Utilizing three strains of C. militaris, paper disks, soaked in each of the strains, were placed on a petri dish containing MYPS agar and marked with four equal quadrants, one quadrant representing a control disk soaked in master flask fluid, the others in the three C. militaris strains. Twenty-seven petri dishes were used in total, with 9 dishes streaked for each chosen bacteria: Escherichia coli, Enterobacter aerogenes, and Citrobacter freundii. Bacteria were chosen because of their co-occurrence in foods, water, and dirt. After placing the strain-soaked disks, the plates were left to grow on a lab bench at 22 C for 5 days. C. militaris’ overall growth was then measured, along with the zone of inhibition created against the bacteria. While all the strains of the fungus displayed sufficient growth against all of the bacteria, the most significant results found were on the petri dishes streaked with E. coli, and strain 1 (CM mound 4#4BX5-3#7xGH#5#5) appeared to have the most substantial effect.
Team Members
Chelsea Spatara | John Benjamin |(Tamrya d’Artenay) | Penn State Shenango
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