Student Presenter(s): Carly Zincone, Ioannis Daniil
Faculty Mentor: Bryan Gibb
Department: Biological and Chemical Sciences
School/College: College of Arts and Sciences, Long Island

Bacteriophages are viruses that only kill and selectively target specific bacteria. Students at NYIT isolated bacteriophages that infect Arthrobacter globiformis, a soil-dwelling, nonpathogenic bacterium as part of a research class. Phage Eraser was found in soil near Theobald Hall, and had its genome sequenced. Using computational programs to analyze the genome of phage Eraser, we predicted genes were predicted by Glimmer based on coding potential and 71 genes confirmed by human verification. Then, we used phamerator when identifying the position and length of each gene, their protein function (if they had one) and the overall comparison of other phages from the same cluster. Using HHpred and NCBI databases we were able to determine that gene 3 was a Portal protein, and gene 7 was a Major capsid protein. By examining these genomic regions in similar phages, we detected high genetic similarity suggesting that many other phages have these genes. The Major Capsid Protein provides the initial interaction site of the viral particle with the host cell whereas the portal protein is responsible for forming a bidirectional passage of viral DNA which can move in and out of the virus head. Although they are not initially related to one another, they are interdependent and reliant on one another. These are essential proteins found in nearly all phages, with genes that are highly conserved in other related phages in the cluster. Further in vitro research can confirm the function of these proteins.