{"id":4873,"date":"2014-06-05T09:04:23","date_gmt":"2014-06-05T13:04:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/inbre\/?page_id=4873"},"modified":"2014-06-05T09:04:23","modified_gmt":"2014-06-05T13:04:23","slug":"cornely","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/riinbre\/research\/surf-training-award\/cornely\/","title":{"rendered":"Isolation & characterization of novel mycobacteriophage"},"content":{"rendered":"

Investigator:<\/strong>\u00a0Kathleen Cornely, Providence College<\/p>\n

Scientific Theme:<\/strong>\u00a0Molecular Toxicology<\/p>\n

Abstract:\u00a0<\/strong>Bacteriophages are viruses that infect bacteria and have shown promise in the treatment of diseases caused\u00a0by pathogenic bacteria that have become resistant to antibiotics. Phage begin an infection cycle by binding\u00a0to surface receptors on the bacterial host, inserting the phage DNA into the host and then using host cell\u00a0machinery to make copies of the phage DNA and structural proteins. Nascent phage particles are\u00a0assembled, the cell lyses, and the phage are free to infect other host bacteria. This so-called “lytic cycle”\u00a0(because infection results in host lysis) is the basis of phage therapy in which phage destroy bacterial\u00a0pathogens. Phage are also capable of forming lysogens in which the phage DNA is incorporated into the\u00a0bacterial phage DNA. The bacterial cell survives the infection and the phage DNA is replicated along with the\u00a0bacterial chromosomal DNA when the cell divides. This “lysogenic cycle” also has implications for some\u00a0pathogenic bacteria (an example is C. botulinum) which require the presence of a temperate phage in order\u00a0to produce the toxin responsible for the disease. Bacteria harboring phage DNA can “switch” to a lytic cycle;\u00a0understanding the mechanism of lysogeny will allow scientists to better exploit phage therapy to treat a\u00a0variety of diseases. Here we propose to study two recently isolated K2 cluster mycobacteriophages, ZoeJ\u00a0(isolated at Providence College) and Mufasa (isolated at Georgia Gwinett College). These phages infect the\u00a0non-pathogenic Mycobacterium smegmatis and might also infect other mycobacterial species such as M.\u00a0tuberculosis and M. leprae. Both phages contain genes coding for integrase, the enzyme that catalyzes the\u00a0incorporation of phage DNA into the bacterial chromosome and are potentially able to form lysogens. The\u00a0formation of lysogens will be verified by confirming the ability of the lysogen to release phage, and by PCR\u00a0analysis of the genome to demonstrate phage DNA incorporation. We will then perform tests with the ZoeJ\u00a0and Mufasa lysogens to determine if the lysogens are “immune” (that is, resistant to phage infection) to\u00a0phages of the same (K2) subcluster, other K cluster phages, and phages of other clusters. Time-course\u00a0experiments will be carried out in which we will visualize the phage infection using electron microscopy.<\/p>\n

Human Health Relevance:<\/strong>\u00a0The discovery a century ago of bacteriophages, viruses that infect bacteria, led scientists to propose the use\u00a0of phage to treat diseases caused by bacterial pathogens. Cast aside when antibiotics were discovered,\u00a0phage therapy has re-emerged as a treatment strategy for antibiotic-resistant bacteria. We propose to isolate\u00a0phage capable of infecting mycobacteria; examples include include M. tuberculosis and M. leprae.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Investigator:\u00a0Kathleen Cornely, Providence College Scientific Theme:\u00a0Molecular Toxicology Abstract:\u00a0Bacteriophages are viruses that infect bacteria and have shown promise in the treatment of diseases caused\u00a0by pathogenic bacteria that have become resistant to antibiotics. Phage begin an infection cycle by binding\u00a0to surface receptors on the bacterial host, inserting the phage DNA into the host and then using host […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1036,"featured_media":0,"parent":10206,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page-twocol.php","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":["post-4873","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/riinbre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/riinbre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/riinbre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/riinbre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1036"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/riinbre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4873"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/riinbre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4873\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/riinbre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/riinbre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}