Neikeita Mitchell |
Home Institution: Mississippi Valley State University
Major: Biology Mentor’s name: Dr. Alfred T. Mikell Expected Graduation Date: May 2005 Organizations and Honors:
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ABSTRACT
Who Have You Been Swimming With: Isolation of Chlorine Resistant Bacteria from Recreational/Contact Water
| Bacteria are one of the longest living organisms known to man. Bacteria can be harmful (pathogenic) or non-pathogenic. As pathogens, bacteria can be very harmful to man. The purpose of this project is to see if bacteria are resistant to chlorine. In an effort to sanitize water (kill pathogens) chlorine is utilized in various forms as applied to potable water, recreational water, and sewage water. In this experiment, samples of chlorinated water were taken from a public pool and plated onto a growth medium to determine if viable (living) bacteria were present. This pool is compliant with all public health regulations involving chlorine dosage. After isolation and purification of bacterial strains, candidates were re-exposed to high concentrations of sodium hypochlorite (6.15%) (commercial bleach) within a diffusion gradient to determine relative tolerance. A variety of viable bacteria were recovered from each of five samples recovered within the three-week study period. A total of eight isolates were recovered and evaluated for relative chlorine tolerance. A significant number of bacteria were found to grow in the presence of high concentrations of chlorine. The conclusion made in this experiment was bacteria are resistant to the presence of chlorine. Future works in this experiment might include: testing bacteria to see how chlorine causes any injuries, test bacterial isolates’ cell membrane and DNA to determine the effects chlorine has on bacteria as a whole, or if potentially harmful bacteria will develop because of its resistant to chlorine (can new diseases develop because of the changes bacteria made to the resistant of chlorine). |