Rationale:

To understand more about phage, the class was divided into several small groups to generate research questions that utilize bioinformatic tools to learn more about questions about NapoleonB and/or related phages.

Materials:

• Laptop
• Canvas Bio-Lab info page
• Gepard dot plot software
• DNA Master
• NCBI & Phagesdb Database

Procedure & Results:

The repeats were located on each of the AM phages that have the sequence, the sequence is indeed found to be flanked, however, the flanks are very short and transposons have longer sequences that flank them, so it’s difficult to draw the conclusion that they are indeed transposons. The new hypothesis is since the repeat is in the non-coding region it might be a regulatory sequence for subsequent genes since they are all found in front of the gene in the same pham.

The Next Step:

The next lab would be to try to find evidence to support the hypothesis that the repeat regulates genes downstream.