EFFECT OF ANTIBIOTICS ON 

MICROORGANISMS 
09.04.2019 

Shrishti 
XII-B 

Mount carmel school 

Dwarka sec-22 
New delhi 

Overview 
Antibiotics are chemicals that kill or inhibit the growth of bacteria and are used to treat
bacterial infections. They are produced in nature by soil bacteria and fungi. This gives the
microbe an advantage when competing for food and water and other limited resources in a

 
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particular habitat, as the antibiotic kills off their competition.​Only substances that target
bacteria are called antibiotics.
● Antiseptics are used to sterilise surfaces of living tissue when the risk of infection is
high, such as during surgery.
● Disinfectants are non-selective antimicrobials, killing a wide range of
micro-organisms including bacteria. They are used on non-living surfaces, for
example in hospitals.

Goals 
1. To study the effect of antibiotics on micro-oraganisms (bacteria). 
2. To understand it’s mechanism. 

How do antibiotics work? 

Antibiotics are used to treat bacterial infections.​ Antibiotics take advantage of the
difference between the structure of the bacterial cell and the host’s cell.

They either prevent the bacterial cells from multiplying so that the bacterial population
remains the same, allowing the host’s defence mechanism to fight the infection or kill the
bacteria, for example stopping the mechanism responsible for building their cell walls.

An antibiotic can also be classified according to the range of pathogens against which it is
effective. Penicillin G will destroy only a few species of bacteria and is known as a​ narrow
spectrum antibiotic​. Tetracycline is effective against a wide range of organisms and is
known as a ​broad spectrum antibiotic.

Why are antibiotics important? 

The introduction of antibiotics into medicine revolutionised the way infectious diseases were
treated. Between 1945 and 1972, average human life expectancy jumped by eight years,
with antibiotics used to treat infections that were previously likely to kill patients. Today,
antibiotics are one of the most common classes of drugs used in medicine and make
possible many of the complex surgeries that have become routine around the world.

If we ran out of effective antibiotics, modern medicine would be set back by decades.
Relatively minor surgeries, such as appendectomies, could become life threatening, as they
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were before antibiotics became widely available. Antibiotics are sometimes used in a limited
numbers of patients before surgery to ensure that patients do not contract any infections
from bacteria entering open cuts. Without this precaution, the risk of blood poisoning would
become much higher, and many of the more complex surgeries doctors now perform may
not be possible.

 
 

RESISTANCE 
 

I. Antibiotic resistance

Bacteria are termed drug-resistant when they are no longer inhibited by an antibiotic to
which they were previously sensitive. The emergence and spread of antibacterial-resistant
bacteria has continued to grow due to both the over-use and misuse of antibiotics.

Treating a patient with antibiotics causes the microbes to adapt or die; this is known as
‘selective pressure’. If a strain of a bacterial species acquires resistance to an antibiotic, it
will survive the treatment. As the bacterial cell with acquired resistance multiplies, this
resistance is passed on to its offspring. In ideal conditions some bacterial cells can divide
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every 20 minutes; therefore after only 8 hours in excess of 16 million bacterial cells carrying
resistance to that antibiotic could exist.

II. How is resistance spread?

Antibiotic resistance can either be inherent or acquired. Some bacteria are naturally
resistant to some antibiotics due to their physiological characteristics. This is inherent
resistance. Acquired resistance occurs when a bacterium that was originally sensitive to an
antibiotic develops resistance. For example resistance genes can be transferred from one
plasmid to another plasmid or chromosome, or resistance can occur due to a random
spontaneous chromosomal mutation.

7 types of antibiotics 
Although there are well over 100 antibiotics, the majority come from only a few types of
drugs. These are the main classes of antibiotics.
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ANTIBIOTIC EXAMPLE
PENICILLIN amoxicillin

CEPHALOSPORINS cephalexin

MACROLIDES erythromycin

FLUOROQUINOLONES ofloxacin

SULFONAMIDES bactrim

TETRACYCLINES tetracycline

AMINOGLYCOSIDES gentamicin

EXPERIMENT 

AIM:​ ​to see the effect of antibiotics on bacteria count.

​MATERIALS REQUIRED:
● 10 test-tubes of sterilized water
● 10 PCA(Agar) plates
● Bunsen burner
● graduated cylinder
● Ethanol (Used for sterilizing. Just flame is enough in most cases)
● glass hockey stick
● pipettes
● refrigerator
● incubator (A warm cabinet for growing bacteria)
● microwave
● scale
● large beaker
● hot plate
● Sample antibiotic
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PROCEDURE:
Step 1:

prepare a culture media plate for growing bacteria

Step 2:

Get a sample of polluted water for test. Mix 2 ml of polluted water with 10 ml
chicken broth in a test tube and incubate it for 24 hours so the bacteria will
reproduce and increase. Usually this is done on a device that constantly
moves, so the bacteria can freely move in the liquid. Most likely you will not
have a vibrator, so it is good if you shake the test tube a few times during
this incubation period.

Step 3:

While the bacteria are being incubated, prepare some antibiotic disks as
described here. (Antibiotic disks can also be purchased from biology
suppliers).

Break an antibiotic capsule (I used ​Ampicilin​)

and empty the contents in a clean petri-dish.
One capsule will be enough for hundreds of
disks.

Dispose of the plastic shell and add a few drops

of water to the remaining powder. Cut some
filter papers in small pieces and soak them in
the antibiotic solution. Let the disks dry in a
clean space. You may cover them with another
filter paper to protect them from dust.
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Although they are known as antibiotic disks,

you can cut them in small squares.
The reason that we use filter paper, is that
other papers often have starch and other
polymers that may affect the results of our
experiments. Filter paper is pure cellulose
fiber.
Step 4:

​ se the bacteria that you grown in step 2 and prepare dilution of

U
bacteria.

1. Prepare 1:10 dilution of the sample. To do this, take 2 mL of the sample and
blend it with 18 mL of distilled water.
2. Pipette 0.1ml of each dilution onto a Plates Count Agar (PCA) plate
3. Take a glass hockey stick submersed in ethanol and run it through a flame to
sterilize it. ​(Glass hockey stick is a glass rod bent on one end like a hockey
stick. It is used to spread bacteria on the surface of agar plate. You may use
a steel spoon instead.)
4. Let it cool and use it to spread dilution around the plate
5. Do this on two plates for each of the five different dilutions.
6. Place an antibiotic disk on the plate of dilution.
7. incubate the plate at 35 degrees Celsius for 24 hours and then count the
bacterial colonies.
8. take 3 nutrient agar plate and added 0.5 ml of the solution on each of
plates. I left one plate without any antibiotics, placed one antibiotic disk on
the second plate and two antibiotic disk on the third plate. All plates were
incubated for 48 hours.

OBSERVATIONS:

PCA1
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PCA2

PCA3

CONCLUSION:
The growth of bacteria around the antibiotic disks is less.
Inhibition zones are more in the plates with more antibiotic
disks.
Hence, antibiotics stop proliferation of bacteria.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:
www.emedicinehealth.com 
Microbiologysociety.org 
www.scienceproject.com