A bacteriophage, also known informally as a phage, is a virus that infects and replicates within bacteria and archaea. The term was derived from "bacteria" and the Greek φαγεῖν, meaning "to devour". Bacteriophages are composed of proteins that encapsulate a DNA or RNA genome, and may have structures that are either simple or elaborate. Their genomes may encode as few as four genes and as many as hundreds of genes. Phages replicate within the bacterium following the injection of their genome into its cytoplasm.
Bioinformatics is an interdisciplinary field of science that develops methods and software tools for understanding biological data, especially when the data sets are large and complex. Bioinformatics uses biology, chemistry, physics, computer science, computer programming, information engineering, mathematics and statistics to analyze and interpret biological data. The subsequent process of analyzing and interpreting data is referred to as computational biology.
Genomics is an interdisciplinary field of biology focusing on the structure, function, evolution, mapping, and editing of genomes. A genome is an organism's complete set of DNA, including all of its genes as well as its hierarchical, three-dimensional structural configuration. In contrast to genetics, which refers to the study of individual genes and their roles in inheritance, genomics aims at the collective characterization and quantification of all of an organism's genes, their interrelations and influence on the organism. Genes may direct the production of proteins with the assistance of enzymes and messenger molecules. In turn, proteins make up body structures such as organs and tissues as well as control chemical reactions and carry signals between cells. Genomics also involves the sequencing and analysis of genomes through uses of high throughput DNA sequencing and bioinformatics to assemble and analyze the function and structure of entire genomes. Advances in genomics have triggered a revolution in discovery-based research and systems biology to facilitate understanding of even the most complex biological systems such as the brain.
BioPerl is a collection of Perl modules that facilitate the development of Perl scripts for bioinformatics applications. It has played an integral role in the Human Genome Project.
Escherichia virus T4 is a species of bacteriophages that infect Escherichia coli bacteria. It is a double-stranded DNA virus in the subfamily Tevenvirinae from the family Myoviridae. T4 is capable of undergoing only a lytic life cycle and not the lysogenic life cycle. The species was formerly named T-even bacteriophage, a name which also encompasses, among other strains, Enterobacteria phage T2, Enterobacteria phage T4 and Enterobacteria phage T6.
Ensifer meliloti are an aerobic, Gram-negative, and diazotrophic species of bacteria. S. meliloti are motile and possess a cluster of peritrichous flagella. S. meliloti fix atmospheric nitrogen into ammonia for their legume symbionts, such as alfalfa. S. meliloti forms a symbiotic relationship with legumes from the genera Medicago, Melilotus and Trigonella, including the model legume Medicago truncatula. This symbiosis promotes the development of a plant organ, termed a root nodule. Because soil often contains a limited amount of nitrogen for plant use, the symbiotic relationship between S. meliloti and their legume hosts has agricultural applications. These techniques reduce the need for inorganic nitrogenous fertilizers.
The European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) is an intergovernmental organization (IGO) which, as part of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) family, focuses on research and services in bioinformatics. It is located on the Wellcome Genome Campus in Hinxton near Cambridge, and employs over 600 full-time equivalent (FTE) staff. Institute leaders such as Rolf Apweiler, Alex Bateman, Ewan Birney, and Guy Cochrane, an adviser on the National Genomics Data Center Scientific Advisory Board, serve as part of the international research network of the BIG Data Center at the Beijing Institute of Genomics.
The phi X 174 bacteriophage is a single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) virus that infects Escherichia coli, and the first DNA-based genome to be sequenced. This work was completed by Fred Sanger and his team in 1977. In 1962, Walter Fiers and Robert Sinsheimer had already demonstrated the physical, covalently closed circularity of ΦX174 DNA. Nobel prize winner Arthur Kornberg used ΦX174 as a model to first prove that DNA synthesized in a test tube by purified enzymes could produce all the features of a natural virus, ushering in the age of synthetic biology. In 1972–1974, Jerard Hurwitz, Sue Wickner, and Reed Wickner with collaborators identified the genes required to produce the enzymes to catalyze conversion of the single stranded form of the virus to the double stranded replicative form. In 2003, it was reported by Craig Venter's group that the genome of ΦX174 was the first to be completely assembled in vitro from synthesized oligonucleotides. The ΦX174 virus particle has also been successfully assembled in vitro. In 2012, it was shown how its highly overlapping genome can be fully decompressed and still remain functional.
A Bacillus phage is a member of a group of bacteriophages known to have bacteria in the genus Bacillus as host species. These bacteriophages have been found to belong to the families Myoviridae, Siphoviridae, Podoviridae, or Tectiviridae. The genus Bacillus includes the model organism, B. subtilis, and two widely known human pathogens, B. anthracis and B. cereus. Other strains of Bacillus bacteria that phage are known to infect include B. megaterium, B. mycoides, B. pseudomycoides, B. thuringiensis, and B. weihenstephanensis. More than 1,455 bacillus phage have been discovered from many different environments and areas around the world. Only 164 of these phages have been completely sequenced as of December 16, 2021.
A mycobacteriophage is a member of a group of bacteriophages known to have mycobacteria as host bacterial species. While originally isolated from the bacterial species Mycobacterium smegmatis and Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the causative agent of tuberculosis, more than 4,200 mycobacteriophage have since been isolated from various environmental and clinical sources. 2,042 have been completely sequenced. Mycobacteriophages have served as examples of viral lysogeny and of the divergent morphology and genetic arrangement characteristic of many phage types.
In molecular biology and genetics, DNA annotation or genome annotation is the process of describing the structure and function of the components of a genome, by analyzing and interpreting them in order to extract their biological significance and understand the biological processes in which they participate. Among other things, it identifies the locations of genes and all the coding regions in a genome and determines what those genes do.
Giles is a bacteriophage that infects Mycobacterium smegmatis bacteria. The genome of this phage is very different from that of other mycobacteriophages and is highly mosaic. More than half of its predicted genes are novel and are not seen in other species.
Listeria virus P100 is a virus of the family Herelleviridae, genus Pecentumvirus.
Mycobacterium virus L5 is a bacteriophage known to infect bacterial species of the genus Mycobacterium.
Mycobacterium virus Patience, also called Patience, is a bacteriophage that infects Mycobacterium smegmatis bacteria. The large difference between the GC content of this virus's genome (50.3%) and that of its host (67.4%) indicate Patience likely evolved among bacteria of lower GC content but was able to infect M. smegmatis as well. It is the only species of the genus Patiencevirus.
The Actinobacterial Phage Holin (APH) Family is a fairly large family of proteins between 105 and 180 amino acyl residues in length, typically exhibiting a single transmembrane segment (TMS) near the N-terminus. A representative list of proteins belonging to the APH family can be found in the Transporter Classification Database.
Mycobacterium virus D29 (D29) is a cluster A mycobacteriophage belonging to the Siphoviridae family of viruses, it was discovered in 1954 by S. Froman. D29 is notable for its ability to infect M. tuberculosis. D29 is a double stranded DNA mycobacteriophage. It is a lytic phage, this means that D29 takes the lytic pathway of infection instead of the lysogenic pathway of infection. There are no human associated diseases associated with mycobacterium virus D29.
SEA-PHAGES stands for Science Education Alliance-Phage Hunters Advancing Genomics and Evolutionary Science; it was formerly called the National Genomics Research Initiative. This was the first initiative launched by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Science Education Alliance (SEA) by their director Tuajuanda C. Jordan in 2008 to improve the retention of Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) students. SEA-PHAGES is a two-semester undergraduate research program administered by the University of Pittsburgh's Graham Hatfull's group and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Science Education Division. Students from over 100 universities nationwide engage in authentic individual research that includes a wet-bench laboratory and a bioinformatics component.
Microbacterium virus MuffinTheCat is a species of bacteriophage in the family Tectiviridae. It was collected and identified by Darcy Reimer on 1 October 2019. It is part of the Microbacterium testaceum NRRL B-24232 viral strand and the GE viral cluster. Microbacterium of the Microbacterium testaceum species serve as natural hosts. Microbacterium virus MuffinTheCat is morphologically almost indistinguishable from its sibling species in the Tectiviridae family, but it along with its sibling species in the GE cluster are different enough from other Tectiviridae members that the GE cluster may soon be identified as a new genus. Microbacterium virus MuffinTheCat is identified from other GE cluster members by its genome differences.
