ISOLATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF ANTIBIOTIC PRODUCING SOIL MICROORGANISMS FROM FARMLAND (VEGETABLE FARM, IDI-ABA)

The soil environment is rich in microorganisms capable of antibiotics production but the rate of occurrence and distribution of these microorganisms at ecologically significant levels has not been much clear. In the past few decades, microorganisms have been demonstrated as synthsizers of varieties of antibiotics even under field conditions in the rhizosphere. In the present work, soil samples was collected from a vegetable farm in Idi-Aba, Abeokuta, Nigeria and was screened for antibiotics-producing microorganisms by the agar well diffusion method with the isolates from the soil sample soil. 2 bacterial isolates showed antibiotic properties and were active against the test pathogenic bacteria and they were identified by their cellular characteristics, These active isolates sort into the Bacillus and Streptomyces spp. The fungal isolate was also active against the test bacteria and was identified based on their fungal morphology as Aspergillus spp. Of both the isolates, a Streptomyces spp. has the highest range of antibacterial activity with 20mm zone of inhibition at 100% concentration and 17mm at 75% concentration against Escherichia coli. The present work has once more contributed to the existing truth in cases of isolation of antibiotics-producing microorganisms from the agricultural soil and promises to contribute hugely in all enquiries into the antibiotics producing micro-flora in the agricultural environment.