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This abstract was last modified on March 18, 2024 at 7:14 p.m..

University of Colorado Boulder
Corresponding Faculty Member: Christy Fillman, christy.fillman@Colorado.EDU
This abstract will NOT be considered for a talk.
Discovering Bacterial Defense Systems within Mycobacteriophage Miryou
Derek Peters, Keri Spitler

This study explores the complex evolutionary dynamics of interspecies lateral gene transfer (LGT), focusing on cluster K5 Mycobacteriophage Miryou’s acquisition of bacterial restriction modification (R-M) systems and toxin-antitoxin (TA) systems. Using bioinformatics programs such as HHpred, BLASTP, Phamerator, and AlphaFold, our research indicates that mycobacteriophage Miryou contains genes with similarity to bacterial R-M systems and TA systems. Gene 38 bears a strong resemblance, from BLAST results, to proteins contained within R-M system operons in bacteria. Furthermore, the presence of R-M systems is supported by AlphaFold identifying two surface-accessible residues, Proline-136 and Cysteine-137 on a vicinal carbon, characteristic of a methyltransferase protein, with considerable alignment to gene 39. Moreover, genes 90 and 91, belonging to phamilies 4290 and 4157, are classified as BrnT-like toxins and BrnA-like antitoxins, respectively. Notably, a ribbon-helix-helix DNA binding domain, which is a domain commonly found in BrnA-like antitoxins, was discovered within phamily 4157, further supporting these classifications and the presence of a TA system. These findings highlight the dynamic nature of gene function annotation and comparative genomics, while enhance our understanding of phage-bacteria interactions.