Found Amongst the Carrots: The Gordonia Bacteriophages, Mrkev and Ninjin — Presentation Detail — Celebration of Scholars

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More information is available at carthage.edu/celebration-scholars/. The following are members of the Research, Scholarship, and Creativity Committee who are eager to listen to ideas and answer questions:

Jun Wang
Kim Instenes
John Kirk
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Andrew Pustina
James Ripley

Found Amongst the Carrots: The Gordonia Bacteriophages, Mrkev and Ninjin

Name: Samuel DeCero
Major: Biology
Hometown: Dyer, IN
Faculty Sponsor: Deborah Tobiason
Other Sponsors:
Type of research: Independent research
Funding: SEA at HHMI

Abstract

Bacteriophages, viruses that lyse bacteria, outnumber bacteria ten to one and can be used as natural control elements to prevent over population of a specific bacterium. Phages can be isolated to target a specific bacterial species; however, some phages can be active genus or family wide. Our work focuses on identifying phages that infect the soil bacterium Gordonia terrae, a member of the Actinobacteria phylum. Members of the Gordonia genus have been isolated due to their unique ability to degrade environmental contaminants, and have been commonly found in wastewater treatment facilities.

Even though Gordonia has environmental benefits, some have been shown to be opportunistic pathogens and have been misdiagnosed in several clinical cases. Identifying Gordonia phages will expand our knowledge of host-virus interactions and the phylogenetic relationships between Actinobacteria phages. We have isolated two Gordonia phages, Mrkev and Ninjin, from an enriched soil sample. Dilution assays were used to isolate these temperate phage, Mrkev was found to have a singular morphology and Ninjin a dual morphology. Based on electron micrograph analysis, both Mrkev and Ninjin are siphoviridae phages. DNA has been extracted for both Ninjin and Mrkev, and is in the process of being sequenced.

Poster file