Recombinant DNA

You have received a PCR product from an unknown organism that caused fever and a strange rash in

young child. The family of the child has two kittens, and the physician treating the child suspects an

infection with Bartonella. Strangely, the growth characteristics do not match those of known Bartonella

species. The clinical lab has amplified an 825 base pair fragment of the unknown organism's genome and

has asked you to use the PCR product to investigate the identity of the unknown bacteria.

Once you received the DNA you decided to have the PCR product sent out for sequencing.

Bioinformatics

1) Using a Blastn search determine the top 3 most similar DNA sequences and using Blastx determine the

top 3 most similar proteins.

What gene did the clinical lab PCR amplify?

• What is the function of the protein?

• Based on the results from this gene what organism did you isolated? And what species is your

organism most similar to?