Determination of Beta-lactamase Activity In a Specific Genomic Sequence From Elizabethkingia anophelis

Abstract

Elizabethkingiaanophelis is a strain of bacteria found in Anophelisgambiae, a type of mosquito. Genomic sequencing of the bacteria reveals several genes that are thought to be beta-lactamases. Beta-lactamases encode antibiotic resistance to beta-lactam drugs, making treatment of this bacteria difficult. Our experiment focuses one one of these gene sequences to determine whether or not it is a true beta-lactamase. PCR amplification is used to replicated our specific gene. The DNA was then inserted into vectors by ligation. Lastly, Nitrocefin was used to determine the beta-lactamase quality of our specific gene.  Our results indicate that our DNA sequence does not encode a beta-lactamase gene.