Pretty in Pink: How Gordonia Bacteriophage Flapper Contributes to Phage Diversity

Bacteriophage (phage), viruses that infect bacteria, are the most abundant biological entity in the world. Despite having only 178 sequenced genomes in the phagesdb.org database, Gordonia phage bacteriophage show greater diversity than Mycobacteria phage for which 1,354 genomes have been sequenced. To understand relationships between these diverse phage, they are sorted into clusters based on genome structure and nucleotide sequence. The novel Gordonia phage Flapper belongs to cluster CR and has a genome length of 67,527 base pairs with 96 predicted genes. Flapper forms lysogens in the host Gordonia terrae, meaning it remains dormant in the host and possibly integrates its genome into the host genome. There is no evidence, however, of genes in the Flapper genome that are essential for lysogeny, such as an integrase gene which facilitates integration of the phage genome into the host genome. It’s possible that Flapper uses a novel mechanism to maintain lysogeny. To learn more about the biology of this phage, gene functions and gene regulatory sequences will be identified.

Faculty Mentor: Sally Molloy

Co-authors: Emma Freeman, Marc St-Pierre, Maxwell Shoneye, Brooke Wilson