My lab partner and I’s hypothesis was that a lytic bacteriophage would be isolated from a dirt sample with capabilities of infecting the bacteria m. Smeg. Thank you for your time!
There is no such thing as bacteriophage resistance that we know of yet, and in class we discussed how we don’t even know WHY phage want to infect certain bacteria. All we know is the process that the phage undergoes in order to lyse bacteria host cells.
You stated that you were hoping to get 10^(-4) in your HTL test. Why is this and what do the various ranges indicate? What does HTL stand for and why is this important?
We were actually hoping to get plaques at a higher dilution (10^-5 or above) because that would show that the phage in our sample was at a higher concentration. The higher the concentration of the phage and therefore the higher the titer, the faster the phage would infect and lyse host cell bacteria. Also, the higher the concentration, the more DNA we would’ve collected to test.
HTL stands for high titer lysate, and basically represents the concentration (aka titer) of the phage sample you obtained. Thanks!
You stated that you were aiming for a 10^(-4) in your HTL test. Why this specific value, and what do the various ranges around this indicate? What does HTL mean and what is it used for?
Good question! So phages are only effective to certain degree against specific bacteria due to a bunch of different factors (characteristics of the phage, the concentration of the phage, if it can even infect the desired bacteria), and therefore combining ones that can also effectively kill the same bacteria would result in a more effective treatment. This is what we refer to phage cocktails. It is also important to test these phage cocktails in situations that would emulate a patient so that the phages don’t target bacteria that is healthy to the patient.
What was your hypothesis for this project?
My lab partner and I’s hypothesis was that a lytic bacteriophage would be isolated from a dirt sample with capabilities of infecting the bacteria m. Smeg. Thank you for your time!
this is very helpful for antibiotic resistance. is there such a thing as bacteriophage resistance yet?
There is no such thing as bacteriophage resistance that we know of yet, and in class we discussed how we don’t even know WHY phage want to infect certain bacteria. All we know is the process that the phage undergoes in order to lyse bacteria host cells.
You stated that you were hoping to get 10^(-4) in your HTL test. Why is this and what do the various ranges indicate? What does HTL stand for and why is this important?
We were actually hoping to get plaques at a higher dilution (10^-5 or above) because that would show that the phage in our sample was at a higher concentration. The higher the concentration of the phage and therefore the higher the titer, the faster the phage would infect and lyse host cell bacteria. Also, the higher the concentration, the more DNA we would’ve collected to test.
HTL stands for high titer lysate, and basically represents the concentration (aka titer) of the phage sample you obtained. Thanks!
You stated that you were aiming for a 10^(-4) in your HTL test. Why this specific value, and what do the various ranges around this indicate? What does HTL mean and what is it used for?
How is the effectiveness increases when it is combined with other types of phages?
Good question! So phages are only effective to certain degree against specific bacteria due to a bunch of different factors (characteristics of the phage, the concentration of the phage, if it can even infect the desired bacteria), and therefore combining ones that can also effectively kill the same bacteria would result in a more effective treatment. This is what we refer to phage cocktails. It is also important to test these phage cocktails in situations that would emulate a patient so that the phages don’t target bacteria that is healthy to the patient.