NLM DIR Seminar Schedule

Abstract:

While bacteria have evolved a wide array of defense mechanisms in response to viral infections, viruses have developed counter-defense mechanisms to counter act these bacterial defense mechanisms. This never-ending dynamic occurs at a rapid pace and has led to a wide diversity of both bacteria and viruses. Genomic sequencing has enabled researchers to investigate a wide range of biological questions which could not be previously studied. As this technology improved in both performance and price, the overall amount of data available to researchers has skyrocketed. The emergence of metagenomic sequencing has revealed previously unknown biological diversity as well as provided a methodology to easily recover both virial and bacterial genomes. The combination of both the large amounts of data available and the ability to obtain both the genomic sequences off both bacteria and viruses within a given environment, enables the characterization of both the bacterial defense systems (defensome) and the viruses (virome) present within a given environment at an unprecedented scale. The investigation into virome and defensome elements which co-occur across a wide range of environments provides an increased understanding of the dynamics between bacteria and viruses.