Tape Measure Protein (TMP) and its Functions in Different Phages

Student Presenter(s): Joana Thomson
Faculty Mentor: Bryan Gibb
Department: Biological and Chemical Sciences
School/College: College of Arts and Sciences, Long Island

Bacteriophages are viruses that specifically target and infect bacteria. There are hundreds of billions of bacteriophages in the world, which is more than every other organism on earth. Students isolated and studied two phages, Janeemi (AZ cluster) and Uzumaki (AU6 cluster) that infect Arthobacter globiformis over the fall of 2021. Phages bind to surface receptors of specific host cells and the DNA genome passes through the cell wall and membrane to enter the cytoplasm and begin replication. Most phages are tailed phages, where the DNA passes through a tunnel in the tail and into the host cell. One gene that is mostly conserved in tailed phages including those from cluster AZ and AU6 is the tape measure protein (TMP), which helps determine the length of the tail for each phage. By further researching the TMP, I aim to not only discover more information about and compare the TMP gene in phages similar to Janeemi but also compare its functions to that of other phages such as Uzumaki and see how their specific TMP gene affects tail length among other factors.