Title: Gene 78 Analysis of Persistence: Face the Function
Presenters: Alexis Forbes
Faculty Supervisor: Dr. Holly Nance
Abstract: The bacteriophage Persistence was isolated and sequenced for further annotation of its genome. Persistence's genome is a striking 98 genes long and presented several mysteries for analysis throughout the semester. A particular gene of interest, Gene 78, was found to have some inconsistencies regarding its function. When submitted to BLAST sequence alignment, it produced no significant matches. In HHPred, it produced a match with a probability of 99.6 % for a Replisome Organizing protein that is not presented on the Official SEA-PHAGES Function List, as well as a Replicative Helicase with probability 89.1% that is present on the list. However, because there were no domains identified within this gene, I determined that there was insufficient supporting evidence to assign this gene a function, but the data suggest it is involved in DNA replication.
