Bacteriophages of Actinobacteria

Background

This project started following my participation in the SEA-PHAGES program run by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. The goal of that project is to isolate and characterize bacteriophages targeting members of the phylum Actinobacteria. Bacteriophages, or phages for short, are viruses that infect bacteria and usually, but not always, kill them in the process. In the SEA-PHAGES program, first-year students spend the fall semester isolating, purifying, and partially characterizing phages that infect soil bacteria. At Southeastern, we'll be using Arthrobacter globiformis as our host species. 

I am interested in the genetic aspects that control various replication phenotypes in these phages, including the burst size (how many viruses come out of one infected cell) and the latent period (how long it takes from infection to burst). Previously, my classes used Microbacterium foliorum as the host, and we isolated 63 viruses infecting that species.