Keywords
Bacteriophage, Corazon, DNA Master, S Cluster
Select the category the research project fits.
Life Sciences
Is this submission part of ICaP/PW (Introductory Composition at Purdue/Professional Writing)?
No
Abstract
Bacteriophage (phage) was first found in the 1900s by Frederick Twort on accident, with the average size of a phage ranging from 3.4kb to almost 500kb (Keen 2015). Phage have become the most abundant organisms on earth and have been used for over 90 years in the treatment of bacterial infections in humans. However, there are many types of phages that are still undiscovered and researched. Discovering and annotating new phages will expand the scientific knowledge of bacteriophage and contribute to new infection treatments. In this project, the unique phage Corazon was investigated. This phage was discovered in Easton, PA at Lafayette College. Corazon is in the S cluster and belongs to the Siphoviridae family, which means it has a non-contractile tail. For this project, Corazon was annotated with an annotation tool called DNA Master to call individual genes and decide their start positions. This decision was supported using programs including Phamerator, Starterator, and GeneMarkS maps. Once a start position was found, the gene was analyzed to determine its function. Programs like NCBI and HHPred were used to compare the potential functions of Corazon genes with other genomes in the database. Overall, our group received 18 auto annotated genes, and two more were discovered in the large gaps of over 30bp, totaling 20 genes that were identified for a start site, function and coding potential. Specifically, we annotated genes 57.5 through 75 (34135-43828 bp). Due to the location of our genes, most of the gene functions were unable to be determined. This genome is a member of the S cluster, which has fewer genomes with known functions, making it difficult to call functions for our genes. The functions we had were HNH endonuclease, exonuclease, hydrolase, DNA binding domain protein and WhiB family transcription factor . Our contributions to the data of this genome will be added to a large database to assist more research regarding bacteriophage. These findings will contribute to understanding the different functions of genes in S cluster genomes. By expanding scientific knowledge on different functions of genes we can potentially contribute new phage therapies in the future. Source: Keen, E. C. (2015, January). Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4418462
Recommended Citation
Trigg, Lina; Damge, Rachel; Martinez, Estefania; and Ischinger, Jenna, "Investigation of Bacteriophage Genomes" (2019). Purdue Undergraduate Research Conference. 51.
https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/purc/2019/Posters/51
Investigation of Bacteriophage Genomes
Bacteriophage (phage) was first found in the 1900s by Frederick Twort on accident, with the average size of a phage ranging from 3.4kb to almost 500kb (Keen 2015). Phage have become the most abundant organisms on earth and have been used for over 90 years in the treatment of bacterial infections in humans. However, there are many types of phages that are still undiscovered and researched. Discovering and annotating new phages will expand the scientific knowledge of bacteriophage and contribute to new infection treatments. In this project, the unique phage Corazon was investigated. This phage was discovered in Easton, PA at Lafayette College. Corazon is in the S cluster and belongs to the Siphoviridae family, which means it has a non-contractile tail. For this project, Corazon was annotated with an annotation tool called DNA Master to call individual genes and decide their start positions. This decision was supported using programs including Phamerator, Starterator, and GeneMarkS maps. Once a start position was found, the gene was analyzed to determine its function. Programs like NCBI and HHPred were used to compare the potential functions of Corazon genes with other genomes in the database. Overall, our group received 18 auto annotated genes, and two more were discovered in the large gaps of over 30bp, totaling 20 genes that were identified for a start site, function and coding potential. Specifically, we annotated genes 57.5 through 75 (34135-43828 bp). Due to the location of our genes, most of the gene functions were unable to be determined. This genome is a member of the S cluster, which has fewer genomes with known functions, making it difficult to call functions for our genes. The functions we had were HNH endonuclease, exonuclease, hydrolase, DNA binding domain protein and WhiB family transcription factor . Our contributions to the data of this genome will be added to a large database to assist more research regarding bacteriophage. These findings will contribute to understanding the different functions of genes in S cluster genomes. By expanding scientific knowledge on different functions of genes we can potentially contribute new phage therapies in the future. Source: Keen, E. C. (2015, January). Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4418462