Journal Article Analysis 1 Spring 2022; Due week of Feb. 7 IMPORTANT: THIS ASSIGNMENT IS TO BE COMPLETED BY EACH STUDENT WORKING INDEPENDENTLY. ANY SIMILAR OR IDENTICAL SUBMISSIONS WILL BE CONSIDERED TO BE A VIOLATION OF WSU STUDENT CONDUCT CODE AND THE PROCEDURES SPELLED OUT IN THE BIOLOGY 107 LABORATORY SYLLABUS RELATED TO CHEATING WILL BE ENACTED. Learning objectives: • To appreciate the basic structure and main components of a scientific journal article. • Readily identify the relevance of the research and identify the specific research question/problem the paper addresses. • Understand how the data lead to the main conclusions made by the authors. • To take an active approach in order to evaluate the validity of the claims, rather than taking a passive approach. • Describe what makes scientific journal articles different from other general sources of information (Wikipedia for example). Instructions: Read the scientific journal article cited below. You may access an electronic copy of the article on Canvas, or find it on PubMed using your newly honed scientific literature skills. Your answers must be typed, using an easy to read 12-point font. 1. State the purpose of the study and link it to the broader problem being investigated. The purpose of this study is that a phage candidate specific for Salmonella strains was screened and shown that its ability to decrease Salmonella counts in food can inhibit the growth of multiple strains. This study is investigating how Salmonella grows in different foods and how the candidate phage can control Salmonella contamination in food to improve safety and effectiveness. 2. List two prior studies cited in the introduction of this journal article. Salmonella spp. Infection (CDC, 2017) “Phagoburn” to explore the used of phage therapy (Matsuzaki, Uchiyama, Takemura-Uchiyama, & Daibata, 2014) 3. Briefly describe a few of the methods used in Huang et. al. Do you understand how the authors analyzed their data? If not, explain any questions you might have. A method in Huang et. al is to identify the target bacterium before treatment with bacteriophages since its been reported that WHR bacteriophages, like Salmonella phages, infect more than one bacterial genus. Also, these phages are usually detected on fresh and processed meat or meat products. Huang C, Shi J, Ma W, Li Z, Wang J, Li J, Wang X. (2018). Isolation, characterization, and application of a novel specific Salmonella bacteriophage in different food matrices. Food Res Int. 111:631-641. (doi: 10.1016/j.foodres.2018.05.071)Journal Article Analysis 1 Spring 2022; Due week of Feb. 7 Another method is that some phages such as Armament and Biotector have been applied to pourlty feed to control Salmonella contamination. Lastly, another method is to isolate enriched phages and re-suspend them in SM buffer for further uses. If done properly these were used to determine phage titer. From my understanding the authors analyzed their data from experiments, peer review, and using other authors articles and publications to further credit their data and findings. 4. Summarize the major findings in Huang et. al. They first isolated phage to find that some phage candidates are able to control Salmonella contamination in foods, if the phage is prepared and enriched correctly. They would select bacteriophages based on their lytic capacity and host range at different multiplicity of infection. Then they pick the bacterial strains and grow them at certain conditions to determined the host range of the bacteriophages. They assessed each test strain by a scoring system. With modifications they started to characterize the phage LPST10. They found the growth curve and thermal and pH stability of phage LPST10. It was then important to store it a 37 degrees Celsius for week to test the stability and enzyme analysis. They then did a transmission electron microscopy analysis to be able to perform the bacterial challenge test and then apply the phage LPST10 in different foods. From the experiment it was shown that LPST10 is the most promising candidate with a broad host range to inhibit Salmonella growth. 5. Can you think of any gaps in this research? Can you suggest future questions that can be asked to further this research? I personally am not very familiar with scientific research; therefore, I don’t sense any gaps in this article. A question I have is why does this phage only successfully work on milk, sausage, and lettuce. Is there another phage that works better for other foods, or was it not tested with other foods? 6. What concepts or techniques in this paper were most interesting to you? What additional information would help you better understand this journal article? I think the pictures and graphs were very interesting because it was a visual, and I think the visuals help people learn and see more what the article is focusing on. To better understand I wish there were more summaries and information on the background of the article and each topic in the article. It was very difficult to comprehend the whole thing, since it wasn’t written all in words, but instead numbers and calculations/units I’m not familiar with. 7. Based on this article, describe the basic structure of a scientific journal article. What are the main sections and what is the purpose of each section? First you have the title with the authors and their credentials, then there is the article info and abstract which are to summarize and show what this article is about. Then there is the introduction, which gives you more specified information than the abstract on what the article is about. Next you have the actual study which is sectioned by the procedures of the experiment and there are graphs and tables to show the data visually. Lastly, theres the conclusion to show the results of the experiment and then the references to show where the authors got information
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