Biology Commons^™

A Newly Discovered Bordetella Species Carries A Transcriptionally Active Crispr-Cas With A Small Cas9 Endonuclease, Yury V. Ivanov, Nikki Shariat, Karen B. Register, Bodo Linz, Israel Rivera, Kai Hu, Edward G. Dudley, Eric T. Harvill

Biology Faculty Publications

Background

Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) and CRISPR-associated genes (cas) are widely distributed among bacteria. These systems provide adaptive immunity against mobile genetic elements specified by the spacer sequences stored within the CRISPR.

Methods

The CRISPR-Cas system has been identified using Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLAST) against other sequenced and annotated genomes and confirmed via CRISPRfinder program. Using Polymerase Chain Reactions (PCR) and Sanger DNA sequencing, we discovered CRISPRs in additional bacterial isolates of the same species of Bordetella. Transcriptional activity and processing of the CRISPR have been assessed via RT-PCR.

Results

Here we …

Is There Specificity In A Defensive Mutualism Against Soil Versus Lab Nematodes, Dictyostelium Discoideum Farmers And Their Bacteria?, Boahemaa Adu-Oppong,, David C. Queller, Joan E. Strassmann

Biology Faculty Publications & Presentations

Background: The social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum is a soil-dwelling microbe, which lives most of its life cycle in the vegetative stage as a predator of bacteria and as prey for nematodes. When bacteria are sparse, amoebae aggregate into a multicellular fruiting body. Some clones of D. discoideum have agriculture (Brock et al., 2011). They carry bacteria through the social stage, eat them prudently, and use some bacteria as defence against non-farming D. discoideum competitors. Caenorhabditis elegans preys on D. discoideum in the laboratory but does not encounter it in nature because C. elegans lives on rotten fruit. The nematode …

Examining Phage Infection Utilizing Mycobacterium Smegmatis, Tanya L. Riddick

Undergraduate Research

Bacteriophages, also known as phages, are viruses that are ubiquitous and survive and replicate within the host of the bacterial cell, Mycobacterium smegmatis. They are considered one of the most abundant organisms on earth (10³¹). Structurally, they are 100-200nm in size and consist of a protein encapsulated head that contains DNA or RNA, a tail sheath and tail fibers. This research consisted of examining phage infection, by re-isolating a novel phage, Tango. Tango was originally isolated genetically in 2013 by a previous ISBT student, Anna Maccarrone. The phage was sent to genetic sequencing but two phages were discovered, …

Assessment Of A Metaviromic Dataset Generated From Nearshore Lake Michigan, Siobhan C. Watkins, Neil Kuehnle, C Anthony Ruggeri, Kema Malki, Katherine Bruder, Jinan Elayyan, Kristina Damisch, Naushin Vahora, Paul O'Malley, Brianne Ruggles-Sage, Zachary Romer, Catherine Putonti

Bioinformatics Faculty Publications

Bacteriophages are powerful ecosystem engineers. They drive bacterial mortality rates and genetic diversity, and affect microbially mediated biogeochemical processes on a global scale. This has been demonstrated in marine environments; however, phage communities have been less studied in freshwaters, despite representing a potentially more diverse environment. Lake Michigan is one of the largest bodies of freshwater on the planet, yet to date the diversity of its phages has yet to be examined. Here, we present a composite survey of viral ecology in the nearshore waters of Lake Michigan. Sequence analysis was performed using a web server previously used to analyse …