Eco-evolutionary profiling of newly isolated bacteriophages
Britt Koskella, Professor
Integrative Biology
Open. Apprentices needed for the fall semester. Enter your application online beginning August 21st. The deadline to apply is Monday, August 31st, 4pm.
Bacteriophages (phages) are potent bacterial predators and parasites that play a critical role in the ecology of microbial communities. While most phages immediately kill their host bacterium, some phages (prophages) allow their host to live momentarily by pausing infection and integrating into the host chromosome. While integrated, prophages can sometimes gift their host beneficial traits that give them a competitive edge against other bacteria, prevent infection by other phages, or even turn the host into a pathogen. However, at any moment, a friendly prophage can quickly turn to foe by unpausing, excising, and killing their host. This tradeoff, wherein prophages are both deadly and beneficial to bacteria, hints that they may play a more complex role in microbial communities.
In this project, we will study prophage movement to better infer how they impact the ecology of microbial communities. In a recent screen, we isolated dozens of new prophages from over 100 diverse species of bacteria! Now that we have a large collection of prophages, we need to develop methods to systematically: 1) find hosts they can infect, 2) measure how often they pause and un-pause during infection, and 3) determine whether we can mold them using evolution.
Role: Students will learn and employ classical microbiology techniques (e.g. sterile technique, cell culture), molecular techniques (e.g. DNA extraction, PCR, qPCR/ddPCR), screening techniques (i.e. transposon insertion-site sequencing), and bioinformatics to help characterize a new collection of novel prophages.
Qualifications: We are seeking a motivated, adaptable, and curious student with interest in microbiology, ecology/evolution, and/or bioinformatics. While experience is welcome, it is not required!
Day-to-day supervisor for this project: Darian Doakes, Ph.D. candidate
Hours: 6-8 hrs
Biological & Health Sciences