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Biofuels from a floating water weed

The recently sequenced genome of Spirodela polyrhiza showcases why the plant makes an excellent raw source for biofuels. The Science: Duckweed is one of the smallest and fastest-growing flowering plants that can be a hard-to-control weed in ponds and small lakes. Sequencing the genome of Greater Duckweed (Spirodela polyrhiza) has provides clues about how the tiny… [Read More]

Pond-dwelling powerhouse’s genome points to its biofuel potential

Duckweed is a tiny floating plant that’s been known to drive people daffy. It’s one of the smallest and fastest-growing flowering plants that often becomes a hard-to-control weed in ponds and small lakes. But it’s also been exploited to clean contaminated water and as a source to produce pharmaceuticals. Now, the genome of Greater Duckweed… [Read More]

Feeding at the biofuel trough

Researchers are using “experimental evolution” to develop bacteria that are more efficient at decomposing biomass. The Science: Clostridium phytofermentans is a soil-dwelling bacterium that helps decompose leaf litter. Researchers grew successive generations of bacteria on different woody material that make up plant cell walls (cellulose, cellobiose and xylan) and found that the bacteria adapted and became… [Read More]

Mary Ann Moran, University of Georgia

Distinguished Research Professor, Department of Marine Sciences, University of Georgia  Collaborated with JGI since 2007 We have been working with JGI on metatranscriptomic studies, using gene expression data to link activity, taxonomy, and function within marine microbial communities; and on model organism studies of bacteria-phytoplankton interactions in the ocean. The goal of our research is to identify… [Read More]

Jeff Dangl, University of North Carolina

Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) investigator, University of North Carolina, John N. Couch Professor of Biology Collaborated with JGI since 2008 My lab has been engaged with JGI on a long-range project looking at the complex network of life of the microbiome that inhabits the rhizosphere and endosphere —the niches immediately surrounding and inside a plant’s root. Science… [Read More]

Trina McMahon, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Professor of Bacteriology, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, McMahon Lab, University of Wisconsin-Madison Collaborated with JGI since 2005 We have worked together on projects related to sewage treatment and freshwater lakes. Activated sludge wastewater treatment processes are used throughout the world to purify trillions of gallons of sewage annually. Many treatment plants employ specialized… [Read More]

Project Management Office: Miranda Harmon-Smith

Miranda Harmon-Smith is in her ninth year at JGI, having started as a technician on the Sanger sequencing line before moving up, first to supervisor, then ultimately joining the PMO in 2012. It was her second “real” job after three years doing brain tumor research at the University of California, San Francisco and following her… [Read More]

DOE Early Career Awardee’s work to involve DOE JGI collaboration

O’Malley’s research, which she recently presented at the spring meeting of the American Chemical Society, involves the use of anaerobic gut fungi from horses, sheep, and other large herbivores to convert the cellulose in plants into sugars. Nature has evolved these fungi to break through lignin, a tough biopolymer that surrounds cellulose, and convert that… [Read More]

Peach genome project in Biofuels Digest

In California, the US Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute (DOE JGI) is working to isolate the “evergreen” locus in peaches, which extends the growing season of the plant. Said Daniel Rokhsar, head of the DOE JGI Eukaryotic Program, “In theory, it could be manipulated in poplar to increase the accumulation of biomass.” Peach genes… [Read More]