Isolation and characterization of a novel bacteriophage SH1 and optimizing PFGE to determine the molecular weight of SH1 bacteriophage’s DNA

Abstract

Discovery of antibiotics has revolutionized the 20th century medicine, and has been one of the most potent methods to treat bacterial infections. Before antibiotics, infectious disease was the number one killer worldwide, in fact, bacterial infections killed more people than World War I. Hence, it took the world by a storm when certain bacteria started to develop their own defense in their war against antibiotics. Through a phenomenon called antibiotic resistance many bacteria commonly known as “superbugs” are able to overcome the treatment, and still can pose a threat to humanity. Dr. Greguske’s research team at Saint Anselm College are turning to a novel approach of phage therapy to combat these lethal infections. The aim of the lab is to study the host-pathogen interface pathogenesis in order to utilize that mechanism the virus uses to specifically target and kill the bacteria, to ultimately treat the bacterial infection. We isolated, purified, and conducted a biostability test of the newly found bacteriophage from the environmental sample. We extracted the phage’s DNA and optimized a protocol so that Pulse Field Gel Electrophoresis (PFGE) can be used to determine the bacteriophage DNA’s molecular weight. Upon doing so, we also have registered the phage into the virus database as SH1, and our next step is to get the bacteriophages’ genome sequenced at Dartmouth College, cross examine the database for the phage, and annotate its genome.