Honors Program Theses

Award/Availability

Open Access Honors Program Thesis

First Advisor

Michael Walter, Honors Thesis Advisor

Keywords

Bacteriophages--Genetics;

Abstract

Small viruses that can infect bacteria, called bacteriophages, can be found in the soil. These viruses are being examined as a potential treatment against bacterial infections when antibiotics are not available or non-effective. Before viruses can be used as a medical treatment, they must be studied extensively. Previous attempts to sequence the terminal end of the genome of a bacteriophage QCM-11 (Quartz-Crystal-Microbalance-11: Q11) resulted in error. It is thought that a covalently bound protein may be attached to Q11’s DNA, blocking sequencing of the genome from the 5’ end. Proteins bound to the DNA of phages is not unheard of, a welldocumented phage, Phi29, has a protein bound to the 5’ terminal end of its DNA. Both phages were studied to determine if Q11 has a terminally bound protein similar to Phi29. Phages Phi29 and Q11 were subjected to digestion by various restriction enzymes as well as a 5’ exonuclease. If a protein is bound to the DNA of Q11 digestion by these nucleases would be blocked. The remaining fragments of phage DNA were run on agarose and polyacrylamide gels. The results from the experiment were not able to conclusively prove that a protein is bound to Q11 DNA.

Year of Submission

5-2020

Department

Department of Biology

University Honors Designation

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the designation University Honors

Date Original

5-2020

Object Description

1 PDF file (1 volume (unpaged))

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

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