Microbial Genome Sequencing: Phage Genome Sequencing for Student Biotech Training

该项目的主要目标是首先了解病毒基因组进化的机制，其次为本科生提供实验室经验和生物技术职业培训。感染细菌的病毒（噬菌体）代表了地球上基因组质量的相当大的比例，并且可以通过将基因从宿主转移到宿主或从宿主转移到病毒而对活生物体的基因组进化产生深远的影响。以前的T4样噬菌体的序列结果表明，存在大量的新的潜在的蛋白质编码开放阅读框架（ORF），其中大多数没有显着匹配已知的蛋白质序列。本项目将测定与噬菌体T4和RB69密切相关的两种噬菌体的全核苷酸序列。新的基因组序列将与已知的基因组进行比较，以研究这些病毒中ORF获得和丢失的机制。T4类噬菌体的基因组进化机制将与其他系统的基因组进化进行比较，为基因进化和基因转移的全球过程提供新的见解。大部分DNA的制备、序列测定和分析将由新奥尔良大学的本科生和硕士生进行。通过参与该项目，学生将学习生物信息学研究的工具，并提高他们的实验室技能。这一教育推广活动每年将影响约50名学生，包括在科学领域人数不足的少数民族学生。这一外联项目将通过提高雇用受训人员的研究实验室的生产力和提高当地学生对科学事业的兴趣，对当地的科学产生积极影响。

The primary objectives of the project are first, to understand the mechanisms of viral genome evolution and second, to give undergraduate students laboratory experience and training for careers in biotechnology. Viruses that infect bacteria (bacteriophages) represent a substantial proportion of the genome mass on earth and can exert profound effects on genome evolution of living organisms by transferring genes from host to host or from host to virus. Previous sequence results from T4-like bacteriophages demonstrated the existence of large numbers of novel potential protein-coding open reading frames (ORFs), the majority of which have no significant matches to known protein sequences. The complete nucleotide sequence of two bacteriophages closely related to bacteriophages T4 and RB69 will be determined in this project. The new genome sequences will be compared to known genomes to investigate the mechanism by which ORFs are gained and lost in these viruses. The mechanism of genome evolution in T4-like bacteriophages will be compared to genome evolution of other systems to provide new insights into the global processes of gene evolution and gene transfer. Most of the preparation of DNA, sequence determination, and analysis will be performed by undergraduate and Master's students of the University of New Orleans. Through participation in this project, students will learn the tools of bioinformatics research and increase their laboratory skills. This educational outreach will impact about 50 students per year, including minority students underrepresented in the sciences. This outreach project will positively impact science in the local area, both through greater productivity of research laboratories that hire trainees and through increased interest in scientific careers among local students.