Week of Undergraduate Excellence 2017/4 May 2017/Oral/The Phorce Awakens

The Phorce Awakens: Isolating and Characterizing Phage BobaPhett From A Mixed Population of Bacteriophages

Phage BobaPhett and his faithful ally Phage JangoPhett were extracted as a mixed population from a dirt sample collected from within the deep soil near Drexel’s Buckley Tennis Courts. There were challenges isolating these phages from each other, but due to differences in their morphology, phage cluster assignment and genome, we have successfully characterized both phage genomes. The genome of phage BobaPhett has been annotated: genes were identified and functions assigned using bioinformatics software including PECAAN, DNA Master, Starterator, PhagesDB Blast, NCBI Blast, Phamerator and HHPRED. Phage BobaPhett has the siphoviridae morphology and belongs to the F1cluster of bacteriophages. Its genome has 59,815 nucleotides, making up 106 genes. May the phorce be with you!