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Bacteriophage TaxonomyNicholas CelmsSan Diego State UniversityFunded in part byNSF 0827278 UBM Interdisciplinary Training in Biology and Mathematics.1

1GoalAlgorithm for finding relational groupings in bacteriophages based on protein similarities

22Why do we care about phage taxonomy?There are approximately 1031 phage in the biosphere, making them the most abundant biological entities on the planet. Despite their great numbers and ubiquitous presence, very little is known about phage biodiversity, biogeography, or phylogeny (Rohwer, 2002)3AlgorithmDefine similar proteinsGroup similar proteinsAssess presence/absence of protein groups in each phageGroup phages with the same protein groupsRank and organize phage groupingsAnalyze phage groupings and protein groupings

4Data120 phages, 8558 PEGsFiltered: 2512 contributive PEGs (appear in a cluster)335 clans (interrelated groupings of phages) forming 14 components55Constellations6

7Note that of our original 120 phages, 19 appear in zero clans! 7Results8Propensity of hypothetical and phage protein is certainly a standing problem in phage research. However, it is also one of the prime benefits of this process. When poorly annotated proteins are grouped with well-annotated proteins, we find strong suggestion for replacing the poor annotation, or experimentally validating doing so. 8Questions?99