NTU Undergraduates' research April 2014 - Biosciences | Page 64

Measuring and manipulating a phage’s recombination rate
Abstract
Bacteriophages are genomes used in a variety of applications. In this particular study the recombination
rate between certain bacterial strains (C122 and BAF8) with amber mutants (gpG, gpH and am3) and a
wild type virus called FAnc was examined. Therefore an overlay assay was performed with 1 phage to
find the appropriate amount that had to be used for the 2 phage combination. The results were
recombinant plaques on the plates and they were counted in order to calculate the multiplicity of
infection and the final titre of the recombinants. The results showed that am3 with gpG combination
had a slightly higher recombination compared to the rest because of the higher distance between them.
Methods of improvement were suggested because of the low overall efficiency.
Keywords: Recombination, ΦX174, bacteriophage, virus, DNA

Vasilis Sotiriou – N0333982