The purpose of this experimental procedure is targeted to find a novel bacterium from the soil of Lantana camara that can be used in the dental field to kill or stop the growth of the Streptococcus mutans bacteria. The experimental procedure is to take place over a time frame of ten weeks conducted by a student team of four. The proposed methodology to take place is to cultivate and purify isolates from the soil, find antibiotic isolates, isolate the genomic DNA, to amplify the 16S rRNA gene segments by polymerase chain reaction, and to build a phylogenetic tree. Lantana is a genus of about 150 species of flowering plants popularly used as antirheumatic, stimulant, antibacterial, biologic control and as ornamental plant (Dua VK et al., 1996). Lantana camara is a shrub that belongs to Verbenaceae family and is a native of America and Africa. Different parts of the plant, mainly the leaves, have been used in the treatment of swelling, stomachache, rheumatism, wound healing, biliary fever, toothache, bronquitis, antiseptic and other affections (Deena MJ et al., 2000). In the literature “Chemical composition and resistance-modifying effect of the essential oil of Lantana camara Linn” the chemical constituents, antibacterial and modulatory activities of the essential oil of Lantana camara Linn were studied. The findings of the chemical study of essential oil of L. camara leaves revealed the presence of a high amount of sesquiterpenes and this oil remarkably inhibited the growth of most tested bacteria and fungi; Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Aspergillus niger, Fusarium solani and Candida albicans appearing as the most sensitive (Sousa et al., 2012). Considerable research, such as this one, has focused primarily on the antibacterial properties the essential oil of the Lantana camara has. This research being done is trying branch off of the studies on the essential oil of the plant and zone in on the rhizosphere of the plant’s soil, to determine if there are any shared antibiotic characteristics. If the plant Lantana camara has antibacterial properties then there should be present antibiotic producers in the soils rhizosphere. These results may not precisely reflect an antibiotic for the treatment of S. mutans, however, because the plant shows so many antibiotic indicators it is expected to find a novel bacteria. Dental caries also more commonly known as tooth decay or a cavity is an infection that has a bacterial origin. Caries is one of the most common oral infectious diseases amongst humans and is characterized by colonization of the tooth surface by cariogenic microorganisms (M.J. Deena et al., 2000). Streptococcus mutans has been implicated as the primary causing agent of dental caries. The grander scheme of this research to target S. mutant
Each team will begin by collecting a soil sample from around the base of a tree or plant located at the University of La Verne campus. Subsequently each team must sieve through their soil sample making sure to separate out rocks and organic matter. Students must determine the water content of the soil by dry-weight analysis as well as the pH of the soil. This preliminary analysis is an important factor to determine because the number and types of microorganisms in soil depend to some extent on the pH of the soil. Thus far for the proposed research a soil sample has been collected from the rhizosphere of the Lantana camara plant. The soil characteristic of the plant is it having a silty loam texture with and average pH 7.6 making the soil neutral. The teams will grow soil bacteria using five different types of media; RDM, R2A, ISP4, N2BAP, and VXylA. For the purpose of finding antibiotic producers for the research on S. mutants there has been an emphasis put on cultivating bacteria isolates on ISP4 media being that this particular media is specifically developed for isolating Streptomyces species...