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Antibiotic resistance as a marker for tracking bacteria in the soil ecosystem

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Molecular Microbial Ecology Manual

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Abstract

To study the fate of microorganisms introduced into the soil ecosystem, it is necessary to be able to specifically detect these bacteria and to distinguish them from the (natural) indigenous soil population. Soil may contain between 107 and 109 culturable bacteria per gram [1]. The presence of such a large number of bacteria, capable of growing on (non-selective) general media, obviously prevents the tracking of introduced bacteria which do not have a specific selectable marker. One can calculate a theoretical limit of detection, assuming that one colony out of 200 from a plate can be isolated and recognized by some specific trait which is not present in the indigenous bacteria. The detection limit of such a microorganism will be between 5 × 104 and 5 × 106 cells per gram of soil (using the method described in this chapter). Introduced microorganisms without such a recognizable trait will have even higher detection limits and it will be impossible to enumerate low numbers of such strains [2, 24]. Therefore, selection for the introduced organism is necessary [12]. In experiments with introduced strains in soil, cell numbers may range between 102 and 108 cfu per gram of soil [26], and selectable traits should ideally permit the specific detection of any number of cfu in this range. One of the problems often encountered is the occurrence of natural populations of microorganisms in soil with the same selectable trait. For instance, bacterial populations in soil and rhizosphere have often found to be resistant to various antibiotics [41].

E.S. performed the research described here at IPO-DLO and is presently employed by the RIVM

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Institute of Public Health and The Environment (RIVM), PO Box 1, NL-3720 BA, Bilthoven, The Netherlands

    E. Smit & K. Wernars

  2. Research Institute for Plant Protection (IPO-DLO), PO Box 9060, NL-6700 GW, Wageningen, The Netherlands

    J. D. Van Elsas

Authors
  1. E. Smit
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  2. K. Wernars
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  3. J. D. Van Elsas
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Microbiology, Wageningen Agricultural University, The Netherlands

    Antoon D. L. Akkermans

  2. IPO-DLO, Wageningen, The Netherlands

    Jan Dirk Van Elsas

  3. MSU-DOE Plant Research Lab, Michigan State University, USA

    Frans J. De Bruijn

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© 1996 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

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Smit, E., Wernars, K., Van Elsas, J.D. (1996). Antibiotic resistance as a marker for tracking bacteria in the soil ecosystem. In: Akkermans, A.D.L., Van Elsas, J.D., De Bruijn, F.J. (eds) Molecular Microbial Ecology Manual. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-0215-2_14

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-0215-2_14

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  • Online ISBN: 978-94-009-0215-2

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