Were you surprised with your results? Was there any tell from the beginning of your research that it would end up this way, specifically the part where you reject your cluster predictions?
This experiment could have resulted in a wide variety of results (or a wide variety of phages and phage clusters). Thus, there was no tell from the beginning of this experiment what our results would be, and we were not surprised that our phage did not belong to the predicted clusters. We were not surprised that our phage did not belong to our predicted clusters because our Restriction Digest results were very poor. Cluster predictions are made by entering the number of cuts on a Restriction Digest gel into a database; thus, a poor Restriction Digest gel makes it hard to count the cuts that specific enzymes made.
We performed serial dilutions in order to dilute the amount of phage in our solution. Diluting the amount of phage in our solution would ultimately allow us to calculate the titer of our high titer lysate, or the plaque forming units per milliliter of solution. A Siphoviridae morphotype is a class of a phage which possesses specific characteristics. Phages come in many different shapes and sizes with different physical properties, and scientists have assigned different classes in which to classify phages. The Siphoviridae morphotype is a classification of phage that possess long tails and isometric tails.
Right now we do not have any idea as to which cluster our phage belongs. Performing another Restriction Digest experiment with more visible bands would allow us to make a more accurate phage cluster experiment.
In the background, Lytic and Lysogenic life cycles are mentioned, and then later on in the conclusion it is stated that your phage is Lytic. Is there an advantage to using phages that are lytic (i.e more effective), or does this not have anything to do with the effectiveness of your choice of phage in comparison to phages that are lysogenic?
Were you surprised with your results? Was there any tell from the beginning of your research that it would end up this way, specifically the part where you reject your cluster predictions?
This experiment could have resulted in a wide variety of results (or a wide variety of phages and phage clusters). Thus, there was no tell from the beginning of this experiment what our results would be, and we were not surprised that our phage did not belong to the predicted clusters. We were not surprised that our phage did not belong to our predicted clusters because our Restriction Digest results were very poor. Cluster predictions are made by entering the number of cuts on a Restriction Digest gel into a database; thus, a poor Restriction Digest gel makes it hard to count the cuts that specific enzymes made.
What was the reason for doing a dilution series? And what does it mean to be a Siphoviridae morphotype?
We performed serial dilutions in order to dilute the amount of phage in our solution. Diluting the amount of phage in our solution would ultimately allow us to calculate the titer of our high titer lysate, or the plaque forming units per milliliter of solution. A Siphoviridae morphotype is a class of a phage which possesses specific characteristics. Phages come in many different shapes and sizes with different physical properties, and scientists have assigned different classes in which to classify phages. The Siphoviridae morphotype is a classification of phage that possess long tails and isometric tails.
Do you have any prediction on what cluster the phage is a part of?
Right now we do not have any idea as to which cluster our phage belongs. Performing another Restriction Digest experiment with more visible bands would allow us to make a more accurate phage cluster experiment.
In your future directions section, what mutations specifically will help narrow down the important aspects of phage function?
In the background, Lytic and Lysogenic life cycles are mentioned, and then later on in the conclusion it is stated that your phage is Lytic. Is there an advantage to using phages that are lytic (i.e more effective), or does this not have anything to do with the effectiveness of your choice of phage in comparison to phages that are lysogenic?
How were you able to measure the size of the phage particles?