Annotation of Mikro, Virgeve, and Yorick

In the Spring of 2022, Winthrop undergraduate students annotated the genomes of three bacteriophages; Virgeve, Yorick, and Mikro during the second part of the SEA-PHAGES program. This initiative is led by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Virgeve is a B1 cluster phage with 101 putative genes. Mikro is a C1 cluster phage with 255 putative genes. Yorick is Winthrop’s first F1 cluster phage with 104 putative genes. Virgeve’s genome contains largely forward coding genes while the latter portion of the genome contains reverse coding genes. In comparison, Mikro has very few reverse-coding genes and many tRNAS which the other two don’t contain. To fully annotate (identify genome location and possible gene function), we used a variety of bioinformatics techniques involving the analysis of patterns within biological data. Software programs such as DNAMaster, Phamerator, NCBI Protein Blast, HHPred, Glimmer, and GeneMark were used to evaluate our genes to other published phages. We checked start sites, alignment percentages, and gap size between putative genes. Innumerable bacteriophage genes have no known function, so data collected serves to further our understanding of genetics and evolution. In a future third semester course, the students will participate in SEA-GENES, where they will further investigate the function of annotated genes in the laboratory using advanced molecular, genetic and microbiological techniques. The collective results allow further understanding of the co-evolutionary relationships of bacterial hosts and their bacteriophage pathogens