SEA-PHAGES Logo

The official website of the HHMI Science Education Alliance-Phage Hunters Advancing Genomics and Evolutionary Science program.

Welcome to the forums at seaphages.org. Please feel free to ask any questions related to the SEA-PHAGES program. Any logged-in user may post new topics and reply to existing topics. If you'd like to see a new forum created, please contact us using our form or email us at info@seaphages.org.

All posts created by DanRussell

| posted 17 Jan, 2017 20:59
Hi Greg,

You actually want Hyper-V turned OFF, not on, so I don't think it is an issue that some hardware setups don't allow it. The second step in the instructions above is usually the one that needs to be rectified, and Windows 10 Home users should still be able to do that.

–Dan
Posted in: SEA-PHAGES Virtual MachineNo Ubuntu 64-bit option when installing 2017 VM on Windows
| posted 01 Dec, 2016 16:25
Hi all,

We switched the SEA Virtual Machine to be 64-bit this year instead of 32-bit, and one unintended side-effect is that on some Windows computers, you'll have to make one or two changes to be able to install the VM. If you'd like this in document version it's at the link below.

Instructions to enable 64-bit Ubuntu in Virtual Box

Now here's the fix itself…

PROBLEM: After installing Virtual Box on Windows, there is no “Ubuntu (64-bit)” option in the dropdown menu, only “Ubuntu (32-bit)”.

There are two steps below that should fix this and allow you to select a 64-bit option for your VM installation. The first step can be done from within Windows fairly quickly. If that doesn’t work, the second step required entering your system’s BIOS, so we recommend trying the first one, then moving on to the second only if necessary.

Step 1: Change Hyper-V settings (easier fix)
  1. In Windows, open the “Turn Windows Features On of Off” window.
  2. You can get there by either going to Start Control Panel Programs Turn Windows Features On/Off, or searching for “Windows Features”.
  3. Locate the Hyper-V checkboxes and make sure they are all UNCHECKED. See the screenshot below.
  4. Restart Virtual Box and see if the 64-bit option is enabled.  If yes, yay!  If not, go to Step 2.  In either case, leave these unchecked.

Step 2: Enable Intel virtualization (more complicated fix)
  1. Enter your computer’s BIOS (Basic Input/Output System).
  2. This may also be called UEFI.  The ways to do this vary by manufacturer, but common ways to do this include holding down the Shift key then restarting the computer, or pressing the Fn or F2 key while the computer powers on.  It always involves restarting and if you see a message like “Press F2 to enter setup” then do so!  If you see Windows, you’re too late, just restart and try again. If you’re having trouble, Google your computer’s make/model and BIOS. For example Google “Enter BIOS on HP Envy 17” and follow the instructions.
  3. In the BIOS/UEFI, find the settings regarding Virtualization.
  4. These may be in a section called Security.  The two settings you are looking for are called:
    • Intel (R) Virtualization Technology
    • Intel (R) VT-d Feature
    Make sure these are both ENABLED.
  5. Exit the BIOS and boot into Windows. Now Virtual Box will have an “Ubuntu (64-bit)” option in the dropdown menu.

Edited 01 Dec, 2016 16:40
Posted in: SEA-PHAGES Virtual MachineNo Ubuntu 64-bit option when installing 2017 VM on Windows
| posted 17 Nov, 2016 17:00
Nicholas Edgington
Dan: With such great sequence coverage that has been seen from past years, would the contaminating host DNA really cause much of a problem with assembly? Maybe one could just add a bit of RNAse directly to the HTL's? It would be interesting to know if you have ever tried phage genomic sequencing with and without the addition of the DNAse/RNAse cocktail, and compared the assembly results.

Hey Nick,

We haven't tried that in any real experimental way. We do sometimes get samples with host DNA contamination, and in most cases it's relatively low coverage compared to the phage and thus isn't a problem. On the other hand, we have seen a few samples where the host coverage was high enough to drop the phage coverage to an unusable/undetectable level. So I guess: who knows?

Also, has anyone tried side-by-side old protocol versus new protocol to check for yields from each? That would perhaps shed some light. Having a high titer is certainly the most important thing to getting good yield, so bumping up the titer wherever possible is probably the best way to help.

–Dan
Posted in: Phage Discovery/IsolationYield and degradation of DNA isolated by new protocol
| posted 16 Nov, 2016 15:12
Hi all,

Since we at Pitt are receiving DNA samples for sequencing (and thus gel pictures as well) I can say that we're seeing more smeary degraded stuff this year than in the past. Not sure what's going on, but I don't think it's limited to 1-2 schools.

–Dan
Posted in: Phage Discovery/IsolationYield and degradation of DNA isolated by new protocol
| posted 16 Nov, 2016 15:08
Hi all,

If you're experiencing recent problems with DNA Master, it's probably because of the update of NCBI to use secure connections. See the blog post and forum below, but the gist of it is that DNA Master was updated on Nov 15, 2016 to be able to handle this, so if you haven't updated your DNA Master since then, please do so!

http://seaphages.org/blog/2016/11/16/dna-master-updated-use-secure-ncbi-connections/

http://seaphages.org/forums/topic/214/

–Dan
Posted in: DNA MasterGlimmer Failure on Auto Annotation
| posted 16 Nov, 2016 15:06
New as of November 15, 2016

Some very important changes have been made to DNA Master to accommodate NCBI's new secure https protocols. Versions of DNA Master from before this date will not be able to connect to NCBI and thus will not be able to auto-annotate genomes or run BLAST.

Updating your DNA Master will allow you to be able to use NCBI's new protocols. See this blog post for more information.

http://seaphages.org/blog/2016/11/16/dna-master-updated-use-secure-ncbi-connections/

–Dan
Posted in: DNA MasterImportant DNA Master Update
| posted 15 Sep, 2016 20:41
Shallee Page
Any Mac people who can help me with some basic WINE setup?
Shallee
pages@franklinpierce.edu

Hey Shallee,

Don't know if you're heading for DNA Master in general, but there's a forum topic here for that. There's also a new document about DNA Master on Mac. (The XQuartz part will probably be relevant to any WINE program, but the other stuff is DNA Master-specific.)

–Dan
Edited 19 Sep, 2016 13:31
Posted in: SEA-PHAGES Virtual MachineWINE
| posted 13 Sep, 2016 19:18
Hi all,

Attached to this message (and linked here) is a document describing the project.

–Dan
Edited 13 Sep, 2016 19:18
Posted in: Xeno ProjectBasic Xeno Project Information
| posted 13 Sep, 2016 19:14
Hi all,

Attached to this message (and linked here) is a document describing the project.

–Dan
Posted in: Host-Range ProjectBasic Host Range Project Information
| posted 13 Sep, 2016 18:41
This forum is primarily meant to be a container for all the different sub-forums that will contain information about annotating specific clusters and subclusters of phages. While everyone was trained in general to do phage annotations, there are certain things that might be of particular interest given the particular cluster you end up annotating. Cluster M? It'd be good to know about tRNAs! Cluster G? Look out for mobile elements!

If you have questions about a particular phage/group, please ask them in the appropriate sub-forum. Good luck!

–Dan
Posted in: Cluster-Specific Annotation TipsUsing This Forum