>Magister Scientiae - MSc / There are limited reports on virus population in haloalkaline environments;
therefore the aim of this study was to investigate the genetic diversity and
biology of bacteriophage communities in these environments. Bacteria were
isolated to be used as phage hosts. One bacterium from Lake Magadi and four
bacteria from Lake Shala were successfully isolated from sediment samples. A
further two Lake Shala bacterial hosts from the IMBM culture collection were
also used to isolate bacteriophages. Bacterial isolates were identified to be
most closely related to Bacillius halodurans, Halomonas axialensis,
Virgibacillus salarius, Bacillus licheniformis, Halomonas venusta, Bacillus
pseudofirmus and Paracoccus aminovorans. Bacteriophages were screened
using all bacteria against sediment samples from both Lake Shala and Lake
Magadi. One phage was identified from Lake Magadi sediments (MGBH1) and
two phages from Lake Shala sediments (SHBH1 and SHPA). TEM analysis
showed that these phages belong to three different dsDNA phage families;
Siphoviridae (MGBH1), Myoviridae (SHBH1) and Podoviridae (SHPA). All
phages showed different genome sizes on agarose gel. Due to the small
genome size, phage SHPA was chosen for further investigation. Partial,
genome sequence analysis showed homology to both bacterial and phage
proteins. A further investigation of phage diversity in this environment is
essential using metagenomic approaches to understand these unique
communities.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uwc/oai:etd.uwc.ac.za:11394/4313 |
| Date | January 2013 |
| Creators | Nemavhulani, Shonisani |
| Contributors | Tuffin, Marla |
| Publisher | University of the Western Cape |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | University of the Western Cape |
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