Genome Scrambling in Caulobacters and their Phages

这个项目是南卡罗来纳州大学的伯特伊利博士和欧克莱尔高中科学俱乐部之间的全面合作。ECHS科学俱乐部于2006年由伊利博士、拉戈迪亚休厄尔女士和妮可·艾伯丁女士创办，他们是ECHS的两名生物学教师。他们的目标是促进低收入社区学校的教育。欧克莱尔高中是一所位于南卡罗来纳州哥伦比亚市中心的学校，距离南卡罗来纳州校园约三英里。大约95%的ECHS学生有资格获得免费或低价午餐。根据《不让一个孩子掉队法》的定义，ECHS最近被宣布为一所失败的学校。 但科学俱乐部取得了圆满成功。学生们对俱乐部很感兴趣。到目前为止，他们已经从环境来源中鉴定和纯化了细菌，从伊利博士收集的许多细菌中分离出高质量的DNA，并为细菌基因组的生物信息学分析/注释做出了贡献。这些努力为这个项目奠定了基础：柄杆菌及其噬菌体。PI在阅读Graham Hatfull博士的一篇涉及高中生对分枝杆菌噬菌体研究的论文后，产生了开发一个关于柄杆菌噬菌体基因组的学生项目的想法。 柄杆菌属广泛分布于水生环境中。大多数感染柄杆菌属成员的噬菌体具有常见类型的噬菌体形态，并且具有包含大（200 kb）基因组的异常大的头部。根据伊利实验室的基因组分析，这些噬菌体似乎经历了广泛的基因组重排。此外，两个柄杆菌基因组似乎也经历了广泛的重排。该项目的目标是表征柄杆菌及其噬菌体中的这种明显的基因组重排或“混乱”。 这些研究人员（即，伊利和科学俱乐部的成员）也将寻找基因转移的证据，作为宿主和噬菌体之间以及噬菌体和噬菌体之间发生的基因转移的这种混乱的结果。首席研究员将协助数据分析和解释，所有人都将是论文的共同作者。为了增加这个项目成功的可能性，正在向高中生提供暑期实习机会，这样他们就可以专注于他们的研究，而不是兼职暑期工作。其中一位老师将把一些柄杆菌基因组研究纳入她的课程。

This project is a full partnership between Dr. Bert Ely at the University of South Carolina and the Eau Claire High School Science Club. The ECHS Science Club was started in 2006 by Dr. Ely and Ms. Lagodia Sewell and Nicole Albertine, two ECHS Biology teachers. Their goal was to promote better education in a low-income neighborhood school. The Eau Claire High School is an inner city school in Columbia, SC, approximately three miles from the University of South Carolina campus. Approximately 95% of the ECHS students qualify for free or reduced-cost lunch. ECHS has recently been declared a failing school according to the definitions resulting from the No Child Left Behind Act. But the Science Club has been a complete success. There is great interest in the club amongst the students. To this point, they had identified and purified phages from environmental sources, isolated high quality DNA from many of the phages in Dr. Ely's collection, and contributed to the bioinformatic analysis/annotation of a bacterial genome. These efforts have set the stage for this project: Caulobacter and their phage. The PI got the idea of developing a student project on Caulobacter phage genomes after reading a paper by Dr. Graham Hatfull involving high school students in a study of Mycobacteriophages. Caulobacter spp. are broadly distributed in aquatic environments. Most bacteriophages that infect members of the genus Caulobacter have a common type of phage morphology and have an exceptionally large head that contains a large (200 kb) genome. Based on genome analysis in the Ely lab, these phage appeared to have undergone extensive genome rearrangements. Furthermore, two Caulobacter genomes also appeared to have undergone extensive rearrangements. The goal of this project is to characterize this apparent genome rearrangement or 'scrambling' in Caulobacter and their phage. These investigators (i.e., both Ely and the Science Club members) will also look for evidence of gene transfer as a result of this scrambling with gene transfer occurring between host and phage and between phage and phage. The lead investigator will assist in data analysis and interpretation and all will be coauthors on the paper. To increase the likelihood of success of this project, summer internships are being provided to the high school students so they can focus on their research and not take part time summer jobs. One of the teachers will incorporate some of the Caulobacter genomic research into her coursework.