Purpose: The purpose of this lab is to continue to work on the independent research project, as well as write an abstract for the final project.

Tools/Procedures:

Tools:

• DNA Master
• PhagesDB
• NCBI BLAST

Procedures:

1. Research was done to determine if there was any evidence of horizontal gene transfer in NapoleonB. It was found that gene 62 showed high similarity with Streptomyces bacteria and that gene 97 showed similarity with a Streptococcus virus.
2. More research was done to show that %GC and genome length of phage are inversely related.
3. An abstract was written for the final project, including information collected from this lab and previous labs.

Results:
The research done in this lab helped to provide evidence for horizontal gene transfer and its role in the %GC of NapoleonB. NapoleonB’s gene 97 matched with a Streptococcus virus. Streptococcus is a low GC bacteria in the phylum Firmicutes. The correlation with gene 97 provides evidence that horizontal gene transfer could be a reason the phage has a %GC much lower than its host, arthrobacter. It was also found that %GC and genome length are inversely related. As NapoleonB and most AM phages have longer genomes, around 150,000 base pairs, this is another possible explanation for the lower GC content.

Conclusion:
In conclusion, this lab helped to provide possible evidence for why AM phages have a lower %GC than their arthrobacter host.

Future Work:
Future work will include continuing research on GC content of phage and host. It will also include beginning to create a final presentation for the project and drawing conclusions from the data and sources collected.