Phage genome bioinformatics

Robert Edwards⁰
(0) College of Science and Engineering, Flinders University

Abstract
Phages, viruses that infect bacteria, experience unusual selective pressures on their genomes. Phage genomes need to be packaged to move from host to host, and phages often carry additional genes in case they are beneficial in a new environment. But phage genes need to be expressed in their new host and create new phages. Therefore, phages have compact genomes with reduced gene length and very little non-essential DNA. We have used the unique features of phages to build novel phage-gene identification algorithms and to build machine learning tools to predict the function of phage proteins. New phage genome bioinformatics tools are helping us illuminate the true meaning of the viral dark matter.