When we enriched our soil sample, there were a ton of plaques and likely several phages. We isolated our phage from a random spot on the plate. Basically, we didn’t really choose MochiDonut, it just happened to be the phage that we isolated!
This is definitely a possibility! It would just mean that our phage belonged in a different cluster, and had DNA similar to other clusters and not A3 or A4.
Yes! There are several things we could test. We would like to do PCR and sequencing to find out more about MochiDonut’s genome, and after that, we could test if the lytic cycle could be induced by certain conditions (basically, if we could alter conditions to make MochiDonut more effective at killing bacteria). We would also like to test if MochiDonut infects any other types of bacteria.
I think that this is definitely a possibility! If there are phages found to effectively infect and kill certain crop bacteria, I think this would be a great application of phage therapy.
curesymposium.org 
Why did you choose this as a model organism?
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When we enriched our soil sample, there were a ton of plaques and likely several phages. We isolated our phage from a random spot on the plate. Basically, we didn’t really choose MochiDonut, it just happened to be the phage that we isolated!
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If PCR testing of this phage indicated it was not similar to A3 or A4 clusters, what would that mean (if that is even a possibility)?
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This is definitely a possibility! It would just mean that our phage belonged in a different cluster, and had DNA similar to other clusters and not A3 or A4.
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Is there anything else that can be tested in the MochiDonut?
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Yes! There are several things we could test. We would like to do PCR and sequencing to find out more about MochiDonut’s genome, and after that, we could test if the lytic cycle could be induced by certain conditions (basically, if we could alter conditions to make MochiDonut more effective at killing bacteria). We would also like to test if MochiDonut infects any other types of bacteria.
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Is it possible that bacteriophage therapy could also have applications in the agricultural sector to protect crops from detrimental bacteria?
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I think that this is definitely a possibility! If there are phages found to effectively infect and kill certain crop bacteria, I think this would be a great application of phage therapy.
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