Non-STEM undergraduates become enthusiastic phage-hunters

Abstract

To increase science literacy and appreciation among nonscience majors, we offered a course in which 20 non-STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) undergraduates participated in a unique, two-semester research experience. Each student isolated and characterized his or her own bacteriophage from soil samples. One bacteriophage was selected for sequencing and together, the class annotated the genome of the newly sequenced bacteriophage. The class produced a group poster and gave PowerPoint presentations, and one student presented the joint work at a science symposium.

Figure 1.

Transmission electron micrographs of mycobacteriophages isolated by students. See Supplemental Material for additional EM images.

Figure 2.

Example of student's digested phage DNA. This gel contains DNA from mycobacteriophage Puhltonio. Lanes 1 and 2 contain 1-kb standards and 0.5 μg of undigested phage DNA. Lanes 3–6 contain 0.5 μg of phage DNA digested with 10 U of the indicated restriction enzyme for approximately 2 h at 37°C. The gel is a 0.8% agarose submersible horizontal gel (7 × 10 cm) run in TAE buffer at 100 V and visualized with 0.5 μg/ml ethidium bromide. See Supplemental Material for additional gel images.

Figure 3.

Genome map of Pultonio. Boxes represent putative genes. The numbers represent gene families (Phams) as determined by Phamerator. Labels indicate homology to known genes.

Figure 4.

Rebecca Goldstein, an English and math major, presented at the First Annual HHMI-SEA NGRI symposium at HHMI's Janelia Farm Research Campus in Ashburn, VA.