The antibiotics that the scientists will be using are penicillin, tetracycline, and streptomycin; the two chosen disinfectants were hand sanitizer and multi-surface cleaner. The antibiotic Penicillin targets bacteria-specific proteins when the bacterium divides; it inhibits the reformation of a new cell wall and pops the daughter cells. Penicillin is most effective against gram-positive bacteria. Unlike penicillin, Tetracycline is effective for both gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria. Tetracycline inhibits protein synthesis by binding to the 30s ribosome in bacterial cells, thus preventing the attachment of aminoacyl-tRNA to the RNA ribosome complex and simultaneously inhibiting other steps of protein biosynthesis. Lastly, streptomycin is effective on gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria. It targets protein synthesis, but through attachment close to a small subunit on the ribosome, as a result, it secretes abnormal, faulty proteins that ultimately kill the …show more content…
Near the circumference of the yellow paper, there is an area–near the top– that shows an inhibition reaction; however, it does not originate from the sanitizer because it is covered in bacteria–cloudy appearance. From these observations, the scientists can narrow inhibition origin to the blue paper–saturated in multi-surface cleaner. Although the inhibition area for the blue paper is not in an easily calculable shape, its inhibition area covers almost half of the area inside the plate–similar to tetracycline. In conclusion, the scientists can infer that the Bacillus bacteria is more sensitive to the multi-surface cleaner than sanitizer. (Concept) Described previously, antibiotics and disinfectants are used to kill and inhibit bacterial growth but how they go about the process and its effectiveness differs depending on the characteristics of its target–prokaryote, eukaryote, gram-positive, gram-negative, and so on. The three antibiotics displayed signs of it affecting the bacteria, but tetracycline also showed that it was the the antibiotic meant for the job. The same goes for the disinfectants; the multi-surface cleaner comprised of stronger solutions (ie. bleach) was better for the job than the hand sanitizer which is used on the human body. Therefore, while antibiotics and disinfectants both kill and inhibit bacteria,