Development of plaque assays for marine and freshwater algal and cyanobacterial viruses

Cyanobacterial and microalgal host cells produce a range of bioactive compounds that makes them good candidates for drug discovery. At the same time, they themselves get infected by a range of different viruses. This means that understanding the interplay of these hosts with the viruses that infect them is crucial in order to optimize bioactive compound production and harvesting. There is therefore a need to learn more about the viruses that infect these hosts. A major obstacle is the inability for many of these hosts to grow on a solid media, which in turn does not allow to characterize their viruses by a plaque assay; a common microbiological method for assessing the infectivity of viruses and their lifestyle. This project will develop new plaque assay methods for cyanobacterial and algal viruses, and optimize the growth conditions required for the hosts to grow on solid medium.

Faculty Supervisor:

Jozef Nissimov

Student:

Partner:

State Research Institution «Kyiv Academic University»

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Pharmaceuticals; Technology; Biotechnology

University:

University of Waterloo

Program: