Where can I find the bacteria Pseudomonas aeruginosa in my home or environment?

[ceedot]

I have to isolate the bacteria for a school lab project. I obtained river water and soil next to the river, then streaked both on an agar plate but no P.aeruginosa growth was seen. Research I've done suggests that it grows on wounds and in hospitals, but those are not at my disposal. My professor said I may find some on rotten vegetables. Is this true? Any lab techs, former micro students, or micro savvy people have any suggestions of where I can easily find it? TIA! (:

[Arete]

I am a professor whose lab works on, amongst other things, field isolated Pseudomonas aeruginosa . It is classified as a Biosafety level 2 pathogen. You should only be culturing it in a BSL2 approved lab with a class A2 biosafety hood. Please tell me you're not trying to do it at home, right? Is this a high school or college project? 

[ceedot]

28 minutes ago, Arete said:

I am a professor whose lab works on, amongst other things, field isolated Pseudomonas aeruginosa . It is classified as a Biosafety level 2 pathogen. You should only be culturing it in a BSL2 approved lab with a class A2 biosafety hood. Please tell me you're not trying to do it at home, right? Is this a high school or college project? 

Hi. It's a college class. We have a biosafety hood in our lab and we too work with P.a more than other microorganisms (it's prepared for us by the lab tech).  This time though, I have to obtain a sample where it typically grows, take the sample to lab, and culture it myself over there. 

[Arete]

Ok, phew. 

Unscrew the trap of your bathroom or kitchen sink, swab the biofilm in the pipe with a cotton bud and streak plate it. 

PSA for those reading along, don't try this if you don't have a suitable lab. 

[StringJunky]

22 minutes ago, Arete said:

Ok, phew. 

Unscrew the trap of your bathroom or kitchen sink, swab the biofilm in the pipe with a cotton bud and streak plate it. 

PSA for those reading along, don't try this if you don't have a suitable lab. 

Would a rather stagnant, algaefied  pond be a more suitable habitat for more it than a well oxygenated clear one? Does it prefer more anaerobic conditions?

Edited November 9, 2017 by StringJunky

[Arete]

5 minutes ago, StringJunky said:

Would a rather stagnant, algaefied  pond be a more suitable habitat for more it than a well oxygenated clear one? Does it prefer more anaerobic conditions?

Not necessarily - it's an oxidase positive bacterium found ubiquitously in soil and water. It has a propensity to form biofilms, colonize man made environments and notorious for being multidrug resistant due to efflux upregulation (main reason I wouldn't want a school kid streak plating for it on the family's kitchen table) . The biofilm in a drain trap is simply one of the  places I'd just about guarantee you'll be able to culture it from. 

[koti]

This is scary, a notoriously multidrug resistant bacteria present in virtually every household? I will go wash my hands after reading this.

[StringJunky]

21 minutes ago, Arete said:

Not necessarily - it's an oxidase positive bacterium found ubiquitously in soil and water. It has a propensity to form biofilms, colonize man made environments and notorious for being multidrug resistant due to efflux upregulation (main reason I wouldn't want a school kid streak plating for it on the family's kitchen table) . The biofilm in a drain trap is simply one of the  places I'd just about guarantee you'll be able to culture it from. 

Right. Cheers. I shall have a gander about it. I don't think it's really necessary to go playing with them for microscopy since I couldn't get better images than I would find on the internet. 

[Arete]

21 minutes ago, koti said:

This is scary, a notoriously multidrug resistant bacteria present in virtually every household? I will go wash my hands after reading this.

Well yes.  A third of the human population also has golden staph living in their noses.  

For a normal, healthy adult chance encounters with opportunistic pathogens has a negligible infection risk. The main issue is that when you deliberately grow one of these opportunistic pathogens in a culture, you end up with many many magnitudes more than you would ever encounter in nature, thus the risk of infection from a culture of a pathogen is many times greater than that of a chance encounter with bacteria in the environment.  

[Outrider]

15 minutes ago, Arete said:

Well yes.  A third of the human population also has golden staph living in their noses.  

For a normal, healthy adult chance encounters with opportunistic pathogens has a negligible infection risk. The main issue is that when you deliberately grow one of these opportunistic pathogens in a culture, you end up with many many magnitudes more than you would ever encounter in nature, thus the risk of infection from a culture of a pathogen is many times greater than that of a chance encounter with bacteria in the environment.  

So...I have a wife and daughter with fairly long hair and if you imagine I clean out my drain traps once a year you would be right. How risky is it? Trust me no one has to tell you to wash up after cleaning, what we call in  Alabama, a pee trap. Dosent matter if it's the kitchen sink it's still a pee trap.

[Arete]

15 minutes ago, Outrider said:

So...I have a wife and daughter with fairly long hair and if you imagine I clean out my drain traps once a year you would be right. How risky is it? Trust me no one has to tell you to wash up after cleaning, what we call in  Alabama, a pee trap. Dosent matter if it's the kitchen sink it's still a pee trap.

Honestly, unless you're immunocompromised, I wouldn't lose any sleep over it.

[Outrider]

Thanks Arete twas what I thought. 

[ceedot]

2 hours ago, Arete said:

Ok, phew. 

Unscrew the trap of your bathroom or kitchen sink, swab the biofilm in the pipe with a cotton bud and streak plate it. 

PSA for those reading along, don't try this if you don't have a suitable lab. 

Thanks Arete, I will do that. I was even thinking of trying to isolate Micrococcus luteus from skin or oral cavity, but I will see how P.a works out.