Siphoviridae have long non-contractile tails while Myoviridae have long contractile tails and Podoviridae have short non-contractile tails. The vast majority of phages (about 90%) are Siphoviridae. Which of these families a phage belongs to can provide basic information about the phage’s genome and ability to kill specific bacteria. However, this method of characterizing phages is less helpful than determining whether a phage is temperate or lytic and what cluster it is in since most phages are Siphoviridae.
So good such a cute phage name! Out of all the experimental techniques you learned in this lab, which ones would you focus on specifically in order to test Puffle’s ability to kill other bacteria? Which ones are unnecessary to repeat?
Testing Puffle on pathogenic bacteria could be done by performing serial dilutions of the phage lysate and plaque assays of those dilutions using a pathogenic bacteria instead of Mycobacterium smegmatis. This would require much better safety procedures though since the bacteria would be harmful to humans. I would not repeat DNA extraction, quality control, restriction digest, or PCR since these experiments would not be relevant.
What are the differences between the clusters and sub-clusters of phage and does this make a major difference in their potential usefulness going forward?
Phages in the same cluster share 50% genomic similarity and phages in the same sub-cluster share 70% genomic similarity. By determining the cluster and sub-cluster of a phage, we can gain information about its ability to kill certain types of bacteria. Phages in the same cluster and sub-cluster are likely to kill the same or similar types of bacteria.
curesymposium.org 
What is the difference between the three different types of phages?
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Siphoviridae have long non-contractile tails while Myoviridae have long contractile tails and Podoviridae have short non-contractile tails. The vast majority of phages (about 90%) are Siphoviridae. Which of these families a phage belongs to can provide basic information about the phage’s genome and ability to kill specific bacteria. However, this method of characterizing phages is less helpful than determining whether a phage is temperate or lytic and what cluster it is in since most phages are Siphoviridae.
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So good such a cute phage name! Out of all the experimental techniques you learned in this lab, which ones would you focus on specifically in order to test Puffle’s ability to kill other bacteria? Which ones are unnecessary to repeat?
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Testing Puffle on pathogenic bacteria could be done by performing serial dilutions of the phage lysate and plaque assays of those dilutions using a pathogenic bacteria instead of Mycobacterium smegmatis. This would require much better safety procedures though since the bacteria would be harmful to humans. I would not repeat DNA extraction, quality control, restriction digest, or PCR since these experiments would not be relevant.
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What are the differences between the clusters and sub-clusters of phage and does this make a major difference in their potential usefulness going forward?
LikeLike
Phages in the same cluster share 50% genomic similarity and phages in the same sub-cluster share 70% genomic similarity. By determining the cluster and sub-cluster of a phage, we can gain information about its ability to kill certain types of bacteria. Phages in the same cluster and sub-cluster are likely to kill the same or similar types of bacteria.
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