Researcher(s)
- Spencer Toth, Biological Sciences, University of Delaware
Faculty Mentor(s)
- Eric Wommack, Plant and Soil Sciences, University of Delaware
- Jeffry Fuhrmann, Plant and Soil Sciences, University of Delaware
Abstract
Bradyrhizobium is a nitrogen-fixing bacteria that plays a fundamental role in the nitrogen cycle by forming symbiotic nodules on the roots of leguminous plants, such as soybeans, and providing the host plant with a source of fixed nitrogen in exchange for a portion of its photosynthetic products. However, Bradyrhizobium lytic phages infect the cells of its host by overtaking the host machinery for viral replication causing the cell to lyse, controlling host populations and releasing new phages into the environment. Whole genome analyses of the Brady lytic phage isolates were conducted to show connections between their genotypic and phenotypic characteristics. The Viral Ecology and Informatics Lab (VEIL) at the University of Delaware has a collection of 16 Delaware isolated lytic phages that infect a range of Bradyrhizobium strains. Ten of the 16 phage DNA were extracted and sequenced using Illumina sequencing technology. Genomic contigs were assembled using CLC Genomics Workbench and annotated through the BV-BRC (Bacterial and Viral Bioinformatics Resource Center). Genome visualization (Center for Phage Technology, CPT) and pangenome analyses (anvi’o) showed that viruses that infecting B. elkanii were more similar to one another than the viruses infecting B. diazoefficiens. Further research will include investigating the evolutionary history of the annotated replication proteins shared amongst phages infecting the same host and the connection between structural proteins and the morphology of the viruses. Additionally, DNA sequencing and genome analysis will be performed on the remaining 10 phage isolates.