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Phage Hunters isolate new viruses
During the fall semester, students in BIOL450: Molecular Biology, co-taught by Drs. Hammond and Anderson, worked to isolate new viruses that infect the host bacterium Microbacterium foliorum. This class took part in the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science Education Alliance-Phage Hunters Advancing Genomic and Evolutionary Science (SEA-PHAGES) project to isolate and characterize viruses that infect members of the Phylum Actinobacteria.
Pairs of students collected soil samples from the Radford area, then proceeded through a number of steps to isolate their own virus, known as a phage (short for bacteriophage, meaning “bacteria eaters”). Fifteen of 22 pairs (68%) managed to purify an isolate, and most of those were imaged by transmission electron microscopy (see figure).
Students then presented their phage to the class and lobbied for their isolate to have its genome sequenced over winter break. Class votes were tabulated, and the phages named Hansolo and BonesMcCoy were selected and sent to the University of Pittsburgh for sequencing. Students taking BIOL419: Bioinformatics in the spring semester will annotate the genomes of those phages, meaning they will identify all the genes in the genomes and attribute gene functions where possible.
A secondary goal of the SEA-PHAGES project is to increase persistence of first-year students in biology. During the fall 2019 semester, the virus-hunting course will be offered to incoming students.