The Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s SEA-PHAGES program provides opportunities for college students in about 150 institutions around the world to participate in discovery-based science by isolating and characterizing new bacteriophages from the environment. Bacteriophages (phages) are highly abundant viruses that infect bacteria and play significant roles in ecology and health, with recent successes in helping to cure patients with antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections. At Miami University, the SEA-PHAGES program consists of MBI 223 (Bacteriophage Biology) and MBI 224 (Bacteriophage Genomics), which are open exclusively to first-year students. The MBI 223 class of Fall 2023 retrieved samples of soil and plant litter and attempted to recover phages –that infect the soil- and grass-associated bacterium Microbacterium foliorum. A sample of leaf litter from the Ruder Preserve on the Miami University campus gave rise to a phage, subsequently named Astartes. Electron microscopy revealed that it is a podovirus, a less common short-tailed phage. Genome sequencing revealed that Astartes belongs to phage subcluster EK2, consistent with its morphology. The MBI 224 class of Spring 2024 has been analyzing the DNA sequence to more precisely define the genes and discover their functions. Although Astartes has no new genes, it appears to be a unique mosaic of other EK2 phages, demonstrating the means by which phage evolution occurs. The class will complete the genome annotation, and we anticipate that students here or elsewhere will do further work to evaluate the functions of the genes of Astartes, possibly in the context of the SEA-GENES program, which is carried out at Miami University as MBI 465 (Genetics Lab).
Authors(s): Jack Guion, Microbiology, Ryan Barnes, Microbiology, Meg Cominek, Microbiology, Ella Conway, Biology, Jacob Davis, Medical Laboratory Science, Leah Hodkey, Biology, Hailey Hodulik, Microbiology, Olivia Hufford, Microbiology, Haley Martin, Microbiology, Abby McClellan, Biology, Aiden Rasmussen, Biology, Isabelle Reitz, Microbiology, Halie Seifert, Biology, Nick Hargett, Microbiology
Advisor(s): Mitchell Balish, Department of Microbiology
Rebecca Balish, Department of Microbiology
Eileen Bridge, Department of Microbiology
Elyse Levenda, Department of Microbiology
Devon Popson, Department of Microbiology
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