Discovering Yucky: Annotating its Genome and Finding Gene Function

Abstract

A bacteriophage named Yucky was discovered in the fall semester and selected for genome annotation for the Spring semester. Various computer programs were used to aid in the annotation and function assignment of Yucky’s genome: DNA Master, Phamerator, Starterator, NCBI BLAST, PhagesDB, HHPred, and DeepTMHMM. With these programs, as well as careful analysis and reasoning, key questions “Is it a gene?,” “Where does it start?,” and “What is its function?” were answered. Genome annotation helps identify unknown gene functions in bacteriophages and contributes to our understanding of bacteriophages.