PROCHLOROCOCCUS BACTERIA AND PHAGE INTERACTIONS

本子项目是利用由NIH/NCRR资助的中心赠款提供的资源的众多研究子项目之一。子项目和研究者（PI）可能已经从另一个NIH来源获得了主要资金，因此可以在其他CRISP条目中表示。列出的机构是中心的，不一定是研究者的机构。地球大气中近一半的氧气是由海洋浮游植物产生的，即光养藻类和蓝藻。蓝藻，有时被误称为蓝绿藻，是所有光合生物中最简单的，是进化成叶绿体的古代原共生生物的后代；因此，它们是研究光合作用的极好模型。这些微生物中数量最丰富的物种是微蓝藻，海洋原绿球藻。在这项工作中，我们使用电子冷冻断层扫描来检测多种原绿球藻菌株（MED4， MIT-9313和Natl-1A）和感染它们的噬菌体。此外，我们还确定了感染细菌的分离噬菌体。我们的目标是在感染过程中获得噬菌体高分辨率结构的快照。这将需要电子冷冻层析和单粒子平均相结合。

This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. Nearly half of Earth¿s atmospheric oxygen is produced by marine phytoplankton, namely phototrophic algae and cyanobacteria. Cyanobacteria, sometimes misnamed blue-green algae, are the simplest of all photosynthetic organisms and are the descendents of the ancient proto-symbiotic organisms that evolved into chloroplasts; as such, they are an excellent model for studying photosynthesis. The most numerically abundant species of these microbes is the pico-cyanobacterium, Prochlorococcus marinus. In this work, we use electron cryotomography to examine multiple strains of Prochlorococcus (MED4, MIT-9313, and Natl-1A) and the bacteriophages that infect them. In addition, we also determine the isolated phages that infect the bacteria. We aim at obtaining a snap shots of high resolution structures of the phages during the infection process. This will require a combination of electron cryotomography and single particle averaging.