By Stephen Zdgiebloski and George Wanis

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Swati Agrawal

Abstract

Bacteriophages, commonly referred to as phages, are viruses that target and replicate within bacteria with remarkable specificity towards their specific hosts or related species. They offer a promising alternative for combating antibiotic-resistant bacteria without disrupting the normal microbiome or causing damage to human cells. However, one of the roadblocks in routine prescription of phage therapy is the lack of characterization, leading to unknown consequences such as rejection by the immune system of the patient or ineffectiveness. Our study aims to characterize the Bacillus bacteriophage Jabberwock, which was isolated at UMW and sequenced at the University of Pittsburgh in 2022 using Illumina sequencing. The Jabberwock genome is 164,181 base pairs in length and contains around 292 protein coding genes. However, majority of the protein functions are not known. The goal of this study was to annotate and determine the putative functions and structures of Jabberwock proteins 11-30 using protein structure and function prediction tools such as HHPred, BLASTP, SwissModel, and AlphaFold. Preliminary analysis suggests that gene 11 encodes a transmembrane domain with sequence similarities to a TRAP transporter according to HHPred, while gene 21 shows homology to a DNA binding domain confirmed by multiple analyses. Gene 50 contains a Phoh domain, previously characterized in other phages, to play a vital role in the phage’s lifecycle by regulating various stages of phage replication, including genome packaging and host cell lysis. Similarly, gene 56 shows homology to a tail spike protein important for binding to receptors on the bacterial cell membrane, initiating the process of bacterial infection.