Illinois Wesleyan's Welcome Phage Annotation
Submission Type
Pre-recorded Poster
Area of Study or Work
Biology
Faculty Advisor
Richard Alvey and David Bollivar
Expected Graduation Date
2024
Start Date
4-10-2021 8:00 AM
End Date
4-11-2021 5:00 PM
Abstract
Viruses that infect bacteria are called bacteriophages and can be readily found in diverse environments. There are approximately 1031 bacteriophages on Earth. A search for new bacteriophages from the Illinois Wesleyan’s campus in Bloomington, Illinois led to the discovery of Welcome, a bacteriophage that welcomes you to learn more about these viruses. The plaques found were small and often had small bubbles in them. PCR was used to test for the relationship to known bacteriophages and lysogen testing was performed to determine if the bacteriophage could integrate into the host genome. TEM analysis placed this bacteriophage as a member of the Siphoviridae in the Caudovirales. The genome was sequenced at the University of Pittsburgh and analyzed using PECAAN, a bioinformatics software webpage. The PECAAN webpage compiled data from several analytical software analyses including HHPRED, PhagesDB, TmHmm, GeneMark, Glimmer, and NCBI Blast all of which were used when attempting to discern the function of a particular gene. The genome consists of 63,952 base pairs and approximately 122 genes. Welcome is one of only three other ED2 phages which have been analyzed.
Illinois Wesleyan's Welcome Phage Annotation
Viruses that infect bacteria are called bacteriophages and can be readily found in diverse environments. There are approximately 1031 bacteriophages on Earth. A search for new bacteriophages from the Illinois Wesleyan’s campus in Bloomington, Illinois led to the discovery of Welcome, a bacteriophage that welcomes you to learn more about these viruses. The plaques found were small and often had small bubbles in them. PCR was used to test for the relationship to known bacteriophages and lysogen testing was performed to determine if the bacteriophage could integrate into the host genome. TEM analysis placed this bacteriophage as a member of the Siphoviridae in the Caudovirales. The genome was sequenced at the University of Pittsburgh and analyzed using PECAAN, a bioinformatics software webpage. The PECAAN webpage compiled data from several analytical software analyses including HHPRED, PhagesDB, TmHmm, GeneMark, Glimmer, and NCBI Blast all of which were used when attempting to discern the function of a particular gene. The genome consists of 63,952 base pairs and approximately 122 genes. Welcome is one of only three other ED2 phages which have been analyzed.