Z-Project - Bacteriophage Repository, Services and Database Construction

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The Z-Project will provide essential and central service functions for all participating groups of the SPP. It will support the individual SPP projects through state-of-the-art methodologies for determining the relevant aspects of the biology of prokaryotic viruses needed for follow-up research in the individual projects. The Z-Project will also be in charge of the long-term conservation, quality control and distribution of the isolated bioresources and their data. Besides the isolation of new viruses, the services offered comprise the determination of host spectra, growth/lysis kinetics and parameters (burst size, efficiency of plating, adsorption rate, frequency of resistance development), the analysis of phage-host interactions including receptor adsorption, replication sites, the localization of phages in biofilms using super-resolution light microscopy, and the determination of virus morphology via transmission electron microscopy. The comparative genomics of bacteriophages, their hosts, and metagenomic analyses of the viriome of environmental samples will permit a deeper characterization of virus phylogenomics and functionality. The virus-associated (meta)data will be standardized and made accessible through a central database module (PHAGODive) that will be developed using the established database BacDive as a starting point. By applying a controlled vocabulary, predefined text fields and extensive search functions, an easy, yet comprehensive, access to key information concerning the model organisms of the SPP 2330 will be offered. In addition, the previously established DSMZ-collections that currently contain about 900 different bacteriophages (many of them not yet publicly available) will serve as a unique and valuable source of reference materials for the research within the SPP. The Z-Project will be run by the Leibniz Institute DSMZ-German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures.