An In-Depth Analysis of the Singleton: Gordonia Phage Apricot — Presentation Detail — Celebration of Scholars

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Student presentations must have a faculty sponsor.

Abstracts must include a title and a description of the research, scholarship, or creative work. The description should be 150-225 words in length and constructed in a format or style appropriate for the presenter’s discipline.

The following points should be addressed within the selected format or style for the abstract:

A clear statement of the problem or question you pursued, or the scholarly goal or creative theme achieved in your work.
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Additional Information

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
Nora Nickels
Andrew Pustina
James Ripley

An In-Depth Analysis of the Singleton: Gordonia Phage Apricot

Name: Brody Cornell
Major: Biology
Hometown: Pleasant Prairie, Wi
Faculty Sponsor: Deborah Tobiason
Other Sponsors:
Type of research: Course project
Funding: Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Name: Dakota Fuss
Major: Biology
Hometown: Joliet, IL
Faculty Sponsor: Deborah Tobiason
Other Sponsors:
Type of research: Course project
Funding: Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Name: Gunnar Goetz
Major: Biology
Hometown: Stoughton, WI
Faculty Sponsor: Deborah Tobiason
Other Sponsors:
Type of research: Course project
Funding: Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Name: Hannah Gregory
Major: Biology
Hometown: Wayne City, IL
Faculty Sponsor: Deborah Tobiason
Other Sponsors:
Type of research: Course project
Funding: Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Abstract

Our research focuses on the annotation and characterization of the singleton bacteriophage Apricot. Bacteriophages are viruses that infect a bacterial host in order to utilize the cellular machinery of a bacterium to reproduce. Apricot is one of 80 bacteriophages discovered during the fall of 2016 at Carthage college. Multiple laboratory techniques were used to isolate these phages and determine plaque and phage morphology including plaque assays and electron microscopy. Apricot is a siphoviridae that infects the bacterial host Gordonia terrae, which is a soil bacteria related to Mycobacteria species. After DNA extraction, Apricot’s genomic DNA was sent to HMMI for DNA sequencing, and it was found to be a singleton indicating that it has little similarity to other sequenced phages and represents a novel genome. The genomic sequence has been processed through the DNA annotation program DNAmaster. The functions of Apricot’s gene products were bioinformatically determined using databases online, including BLASTp, HHpred, Phamerator, and Phagesdb. These databases provided comparisons between Apricot’s protein coding genes and the protein coding genes of other organisms. Further characterization of Apricot is being performed using bioinformatic analysis and laboratory techniques to examine this unique Gordonia phage.

Poster file