An unexplored genomic terrain in a handf...( Howard Hughes Medical Institute researc...)

Howard Hughes Medical Institute researchers and their colleagues have literally unearthed a treasure trove of genomic information from ten newly identified viruses found in the monkey pit at the Bronx Zoo and other locations. The viruses are called mycobacteriophages and they infect a range of bacteria, including those that cause tuberculosis and leprosy.

The studies, which were undertaken with the aid of high school students from Pennsylvania and New York, have also uncovered evidence supporting the theory that mycobacteriophages undergo constant random genetic mixing in the wild. These free-flowing associations produce a mlange of recombinant viruses, with the weaker strains weeded out in survival-of-the-fittest competitions.

The researchers reported their findings in the April 18, 2003, issue of the journal Cell. The research team included HHMI Professor Graham Hatfull at the University of Pittsburgh and HHMI investigator William Jacobs at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

The ten soil-dwelling mycobacteriophages selected for genomic sequencing came from zoos, backyards, and even the soil outside a tuberculosis sanitarium in India. Despite their humble surroundings, the phages may have quite a story to tell. "Phages represent the most abundant life form in the biosphere, with an estimated 1031 phage particles in the world," said Hatfull. "Our data indicate not only that this amazingly diverse population constitutes the largest unexplored reservoir of sequence information, but one that is extremely dynamic, swapping genes with many other organisms."

Hatfull and his colleagues enlisted the help of high school biology students taught by Jacobs's sister, Debbie Jacobs-Sera, who is a co-author of the article in Cell. "One student isolated a phage from the rosebush in her front yard and from a nearby barnyard; and another student found a phage in soil from the Bronx Zoo monkey pit," Jacobs said. Jacob Falbo and Joseph Gross, two
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Contact: Jim Keeley
keeleyj@hhmi.org
301-215-8858
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
17-Apr-2003

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