DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Predation Behavior of Bacteriovorax and Bacteriophages Against Vibrio spp. - Linking Predatory Traits with Systematics of the Bacterial Predator

噬菌体是一种独特的捕食性细菌，具有潜在的抗菌作用和益处，可减轻植物和动物中的某些细菌疾病，控制细菌种群并回收环境中的营养物质。这些细菌也可能是新的新型治疗化合物的一个重要的未开发的来源。为了充分发挥噬菌体的潜力，有必要更好地了解它们的基因组结构，并为它们的分类和命名系统带来秩序。本研究的目的是利用全基因组序列，以确定最佳性能的基因，以促进细菌的分类和系统学。构建一个更准确的系统发育树将为未来的研究提供一个框架，以定义新的分离株。这些信息和由此产生的分类方案将通过出版物，序列数据库和网站向科学界传播。佛罗里达A M是一所历史悠久的黑人学院和大学，很少有申请人提交DDIG提案。学生合作PI将分享她在规划和通过演示文稿编写提案的经验，以激励他人，从而有可能增加未来少数民族学生的提案数量。

Bacteriovorax are unique predatory bacteria with potential roles and benefits as antibacterial agents to mitigate certain bacterial diseases in plants and animals, controlling bacterial populations and recycling nutrients in the environment. These bacteria may also be an important unexploited source of new novel therapeutic compounds. To realize the full potential of Bacteriovorax, it is necessary to better understand their genome structure and to bring order to the system of classifying and naming them. The purpose of this study is to use whole-genomic sequences to identify the best-performing genes in order to advance the classification and systematics of Bacteriovorax bacteria. The construction of a more accurate phylogenetic tree of Bacteriovorax will provide a framework to define novel isolates in future studies.This information and resulting classification scheme will be disseminated to the scientific community through publications, sequence databases and a website. Florida A&M is a historically black college and university with few applicants submitting DDIG proposals. The student Co-PI will share her experiences in planning and writing the proposal through presentations to inspire others and thus potentially increasing future numbers of proposals from minority students.