Sparked by our discovery of the CRISPR adaptive immunity system in hot spring [27611571, and other cyanobacteria [28698278], I would like to characterize cyanophages because they represent a ‘vector’ for evolutionary change and adaptation and our knowledge of them is rudimentary [26917774]. We can acquire phage DNA directly from mat samples because they are abundant and a virome has been assembled with additional viral large contigs [27611571,28698278]. Furthermore, we will extend our study of host-phage co-evolution by making systematic observations of CRISPR spacers in the host population at the population level, as well as analyzing spacer diversity in individual cells. This work would provide data about how hosts fend off phage attack, how phage contribute to genetic diversification of the mat microbe and, using a unique time-resolved analysis of how quickly spacers are acquired by the host, provide new information on mechanisms of immunity and bypassing immunity. To capture spacer diversity within populations we will target analysis of known CRISPR regions (we have already shown this is feasible) in single cells (ongoing project with the Joint Genome Institute).

Select Publications

Bhaya, D. (2019). Diversity, dynamics and defense in microbial communities. In APS March Meeting Abstracts (Vol. 2019, pp. C36-002).

Bhaya, D. (2017). Cyanophages and Cyanobacteria in Extreme Environments (No. 503441). DOE Joint Genome Institute. https://doi.org/10.25585/1487481

Held, N. L., Childs, L. M., Davison, M., Weitz, J. S., Whitaker, R. J., & Bhaya, D. (2013). CRISPR-Cas systems to probe ecological diversity and host–viral interactions. In CRISPR-Cas systems (pp. 221-250). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-34657-6_9

Heidelberg, J. F., Nelson, W. C., Schoenfeld, T., & Bhaya, D. (2009). Germ warfare in a Microbial Mat Community: Crisprs provide insights into the co-evolution of host and viral genomes. PLoS ONE, 4(1). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0004169