Prediction of Functional Genes in Actinobacteriophage Truong and Analysis of Lysin
Mentor Information
Richard Pollenz (Cell Biology, Microbiology, and Molecular Biology)
Description
Bacteriophages are the most abundant organisms on Earth and unique in their ability to infect and replicate within a specific bacterial host. The rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria is a major health concern and phage may be the next line of antibiotic agents. The goal of this project was to identify and analyze the functional genes within M. foliorum actinobacteriophage Truong with a focus on lysin. To carry out this project the following programs were used: NCBI BLAST, HHpred, TMHMM, SOSUI, Phamerator, and DNAMaster. These tools examined the coding potential, alignment, and probability of the start sites for each gene. Functions were predicted by folding the protein in HHpred. Out of the 19 functional genes, 21% were tail proteins e.g. minor tail; 53% were structural e.g. membrane and portal proteins; 37% were regulatory e.g. DNA Primase and Polymerase; and 10% were enzymes e.g. lysin A and terminase. The bacteriostatic lysin gene is significant due to its ability to destroy bacterial cell walls. Lysin A falls under the domain Peptidase, Family M23, and was located between the minor tail and membrane proteins. Across the EK2 cluster of phages, alignment comparisons showed that Lysin A was 99% identical to the gene in Akoni and 70% identical to the gene in PhriedRice. Further analysis of genes in phage will contribute to the understanding of evolution and provide important data for health applications.
Prediction of Functional Genes in Actinobacteriophage Truong and Analysis of Lysin
Bacteriophages are the most abundant organisms on Earth and unique in their ability to infect and replicate within a specific bacterial host. The rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria is a major health concern and phage may be the next line of antibiotic agents. The goal of this project was to identify and analyze the functional genes within M. foliorum actinobacteriophage Truong with a focus on lysin. To carry out this project the following programs were used: NCBI BLAST, HHpred, TMHMM, SOSUI, Phamerator, and DNAMaster. These tools examined the coding potential, alignment, and probability of the start sites for each gene. Functions were predicted by folding the protein in HHpred. Out of the 19 functional genes, 21% were tail proteins e.g. minor tail; 53% were structural e.g. membrane and portal proteins; 37% were regulatory e.g. DNA Primase and Polymerase; and 10% were enzymes e.g. lysin A and terminase. The bacteriostatic lysin gene is significant due to its ability to destroy bacterial cell walls. Lysin A falls under the domain Peptidase, Family M23, and was located between the minor tail and membrane proteins. Across the EK2 cluster of phages, alignment comparisons showed that Lysin A was 99% identical to the gene in Akoni and 70% identical to the gene in PhriedRice. Further analysis of genes in phage will contribute to the understanding of evolution and provide important data for health applications.
