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Bacteriophages pp 1–13Cite as

Bacteriophage Discovery and Genomics

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Abstract

Bacteriophages have offered opportunities for promoting student education for many years. The advancement of high throughput DNA sequencing technologies, however, has now paved the way for fuller student engagement in phage discovery and genomics. Because of the extraordinarily high diversity of phage genomes, there is a near-limitless resource of bacteriophages that can be isolated from the environment using a bacterial host of one’s choice, with strong prospects of isolating a phage that is replete with genetic novelty. The phage discovery and genomics platform is imbued with flexibility and has been implemented as open-ended research experiences for high school and undergraduate students in the Phage Hunters Integrating Research and Education (PHIRE) program, as an intense 2-week workshop in the Mycobacterial Genetic Course in Durban South Africa, and as a community of institutions providing course-based research experiences for freshman undergraduates in the Science Education Alliance Phage Hunters Advancing Genomics and Evolutionary Science (SEA-PHAGES) program. Here, I discuss the essential components of the phage discovery and genomic platform, three different configurations in which it has been implemented, and review the insights into phage diversity and genomics that have been gleaned.

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Acknowledgments

I thank Deborah Jacobs-Sera and Welkin Pope for comments on the manuscript. This work was supported by a grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biological Sciences, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, 15260, USA

    Graham F. Hatfull

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  1. Graham F. Hatfull
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Correspondence to Graham F. Hatfull .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Evolution Biotechnologies , Evolution Biotechnologies, United Kingdom

    David Harper

  2. Dept. of Microbiology, The Ohio State University, Mansfield, Ohio, USA

    Stephen Abedon

  3. GeneWEAVE Biosciences, Roche Molecular Systems GeneWEAVE Biosciences, Los Gatos, USA

    Benjamin Burrowes

  4. Evolution Biotechnologies , Edinburgh, United Kingdom

    Malcolm McConville

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Hatfull, G.F. (2017). Bacteriophage Discovery and Genomics. In: Harper, D., Abedon, S., Burrowes, B., McConville, M. (eds) Bacteriophages. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-40598-8_6-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-40598-8_6-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-40598-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-40598-8

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