Katie Bathke of Allen Consolidated Schools finishes in 3rd Place in Microbiology at the International Science and Engineering Fair in Pittsburgh, PA.
From: Marc Bathke, Science Instructor Allen Consolidated Schools
Launch the media gallery 1 playerCongratulations to Katie Bathke for finishing in 3rd place in the Microbiology Category at the 2018 International Science & Engineering Fair (ISEF) in Pittsburgh, PA. The International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) is the largest pre-collegiate science fair in the world. This year 1800 students from 83 countries competed for over four million dollars in prize money at ISEF. Seventy Five students competed in the Microbiology category with Katie earning 3rd place. Along with the medal she wins a cash prize of $1000. The title of her project is “The Effect of Bacillus cereus as a Biological Control Agent on Xanthomonas vasicola pathovar vasculorum. Katie is a junior at Allen Consolidated Schools, and is the daughter of Marc and Cristy Bathke of Dixon, NE.
The Abstract for Katie’s project is below.
Abstract
The first observation of Xanthomonas vasicola pathovar vasculorum, commonly known as bacterial Leaf Streak being in the United States occurred in Nebraska. As of August 2016, was identified to be affecting the foliage of many types of corn. Since then the disease has been confirmed in eight other states across the corn belt, and there is still no known control method. The project was chosen to see if Bacillus cereus could be used as a biological control agent for inhibiting the growth of Xanthomonas vasicola pathovar vasculorum. Therefore, the question tested in this experiment is “How will Bacillus cereus affect the growth of Xanthomonas vasicola pv. Vasculorum?” Bacillus cereus has been found to naturally produce two antibiotics, zwittermicin and kanosamine. Both antibiotics have been found to be effective antimicrobial agents.To begin Bacillus cereus and sterilized water were used to create a cloudy solution for testing purposes. The Kirby Bauer disk diffusion test and Serial dilution test were conducted to assess the interaction of Bacillus Cereus as a biological control agent against Xanthomonas vasicola pv. vasculorum. First, the Kirby Bauer disk diffusion test was performed treating filter disks already on plates of Xanthomonas vasicola pv. vasculorum with the Bacillus cereus solution and incubate the plates. The second test preformed was serial dilution test with both species of bacteria present in the solution. The results show Bacillus cereus inhibits the growth of Xanthomonas vasicola pv. Vasculorum when grown in the same environment.