The restriction digest and PCR would show results that were for the phage we isolated. The enzymes that cut the DNA would most likely not include SalI, and the PCR would have more cluster primers to test out since we would have a wider range of possible clusters. Our plaque assay showed turbid plaques, so our results for the titer plaque assay would have temperate phages instead of lytic phages.
Really interesting research project! In your conclusions you mentioned that only lytic bacteria leave completely clear plaques and no turbid areas within the plaque, how do they do this and does this mean non-lytic phages leave plaques?
Great question! Lytic phages are known to only infect and kill the bacteria, while non-lytic or temperate phages sometimes integrate their DNA into the DNA of the host bacteria. When this happens the host cell does not die, but is still infected and shows up as a cloudy (turbid) plaque.
There was contamination in the entire phage lab from an unknown source. The reason could have been that someone isolated this phage and accidentally contaminated items that were shared between the class, or previously isolated corndog phages could have somehow contaminated one of the shared items.
curesymposium.org 
If the “corndog” phage didn’t contaminate the other phages, in what way would the results have turned out differently?
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The restriction digest and PCR would show results that were for the phage we isolated. The enzymes that cut the DNA would most likely not include SalI, and the PCR would have more cluster primers to test out since we would have a wider range of possible clusters. Our plaque assay showed turbid plaques, so our results for the titer plaque assay would have temperate phages instead of lytic phages.
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Really interesting research project! In your conclusions you mentioned that only lytic bacteria leave completely clear plaques and no turbid areas within the plaque, how do they do this and does this mean non-lytic phages leave plaques?
LikeLike
Great question! Lytic phages are known to only infect and kill the bacteria, while non-lytic or temperate phages sometimes integrate their DNA into the DNA of the host bacteria. When this happens the host cell does not die, but is still infected and shows up as a cloudy (turbid) plaque.
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What could be some potential reasons your phage was contaminated?
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There was contamination in the entire phage lab from an unknown source. The reason could have been that someone isolated this phage and accidentally contaminated items that were shared between the class, or previously isolated corndog phages could have somehow contaminated one of the shared items.
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