#15 - Discovery and Characterization of a Novel Bacteriophage XianYue

Abstract

Viral particles, known as bacteriophage (phage), are among the most abundant on the planet with an estimated instance of 10³¹ unique species believed to be in existence. The phage XianYue was isolated for this research and studied for its physical characteristics as well as genomic properties, such as protein function. This phage was found through enriched isolation of a sample collected in Hart County, Georgia then isolated and collected at a high volume in solution through the process of titering using Mycobacterium smegmatis MC2155 (Smeg). Smeg was used because of its nonpathogenic nature as well as its ability to replicate quickly in comparison to other Mycobacterium. The inclination of the XianYue bacteriophage to attack and lyse Smeg shows that there is potential for further infection in pathogenic strains of Mycobacterium, such as Mycobacterium tuberculosis or Mycobacterium leprae, which cause tuberculosis and leprosy respectively. This is important for the field of medical biology as it demonstrates that human infectious diseases could be the target of bacteriophage therapy. Furthermore, XianYue was studied using Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) photos to study the phage’s physical characteristics so that the researchers have a better understanding of how it is able to infect bacterial cells. The XianYue genome was then analyzed with gel electrophoresis and later coded for function using the location of certain genes on specific chromosomes conserved across phage genomes, or synteny, of other fully annotated phage. This was done through the use of bioinformatic software such as DNA Master, PECAAN, NCBI-BLAST, and Phamerator. Plans for future study include studying the mechanisms behind the life cycle changes experiences by XianYue, as well as defining function to many of the genes listed without one in the current published genome.