Characterization of Bacteriophage Found Outside of Denhart — Presentation Detail — Celebration of Scholars

Instructions

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.
A brief comment about the significance or uniqueness of the work.
A clear description of the methods used to achieve the purpose or goals for the work.
A statement of the conclusions, results, outcomes, or recommendations, or if the work is still in progress, the results you expect to report at the event.

Presenter photographs should be head and shoulder shots comparable to passport photos.

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

Characterization of Bacteriophage Found Outside of Denhart

Name: Krysti Vanoverbeke
Major: Psychology
Hometown: Trevor, Wi
Faculty Sponsor: Deborah Tobiason
Other Sponsors:
Type of research: Course project
Funding: Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Name: Cristian Hilliard
Major: Biology
Hometown: Glen Ellyn
Faculty Sponsor: Deborah Tobiason
Other Sponsors:
Type of research: Course project
Funding: Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Abstract

Through the SEA-Phages program, many bacteriophages that infect Mycobacterium smegmatis and Gordonia terrae have been sequenced and annotated, revealing the nature of their genetic information and functions of essential proteins. However, fewer Microbacterium foliorum bacteriophages have been discovered. In fall 2018, 58 bacteriophages using the host Microbacterium foliorum were isolated and purified at Carthage College. Phage Den3 was obtained from a flower bed outside the Carthage dorm Denhart. Through plaque assays, plaque morphology was determined, indicating that Den3 is a lytic phage. Electron microscopy revealed that Den3 is a siphoviridae bacteriophage with a long, non-contractile tail. Based on DNA sequencing, it is a cluster EA1 phage. We are currently annotating the genes of the bacteriophage Den3 using annotation programs like DNAmaster and Pecaan. Sequence comparisons using bioinformatic tools such as BLAST and HHpred are used to reveal gene function. Further bioinformatic analysis will be performed to explore novel genes, putative repeat sequences, and sequences of interest.

Poster file