Working Group leader: Craig Miller
Group members: Holly Wichman, JT Van Leuven, Yesol Sapozhnikov, Keera Paull, Jacob Schow, Tessa Wedmyer
Originated: June 2015
Description:
This working group focuses on phage and phage-host interactions. We have several research directions. One project involves attenuating the bacteriophage phiX174 using synonymous recoding and asking questions about how mutational effects combine and how fitness recovery transpires. This work is funded by an NIH R01 grant. A second project is focused on how altering the stability of phage capsid proteins alters fitness. Here we are asking asking how well can molecular and statistical models predict viral fitness. This work is funded by an NSF Track II grant. A third (and recently begun) branch of work involves testing how bacterial host cells evolve resistance to different phage using whole genome sequencing and bioinformatics tools.
Publications:
Selecting among three basic fitness landscape models: additive, multiplicative and stickbreaking
Miller, C.R., Leuven, J.T., Wichman, H.A., & Joyce, P. (2017). Selecting among three basic fitness landscape models: Additive, multiplicative and stickbreaking. Theoretical population biology.