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Sponge genome project in New Scientist

Sponges are primitive creatures with a body plan unlike that of any other living organism. They are also our most distant animal cousins. Now that their genetic make-up has finally been sequenced, it could explain one of the greatest mysteries of evolution: how single-celled organisms in the primordial oceans evolved into complex multicellular animals with… [Read More]

Tammar wallaby foregut microbiome

Australia and New Zealand were separated from other land masses for millennia, and the unique marsupials found there such as kangaroos and wallabies have forestomachs adapted to efficiently break down lignocellulosic plant mass to extract nutrients. Australian marsupials such as the Tammar wallaby (above) contain unique, uncultured bacteria that could be useful in breaking down… [Read More]

Cheryl Kerfeld recognized by ASBMB on EurekAlert

Cheryl A. Kerfeld, a structural biologist and the head of the Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute’s Education and Structural Genomics Program, won the ASBMB Award for Exemplary Contributions to Education. Kerfeld, who also serves as an adjunct professor at the University of California, Berkeley, was named the winner for encouraging effective teaching and learning… [Read More]

Schizophyllum commune project on Power Online

The DOE Joint Genome Institute (JGI) previously sequenced and published the genomes of two wood-decaying fungi. Now a team of researchers led by scientists from the DOE JGI and the University of Utrecht announce the analysis of a third such genome in a study published online July 11 in Nature Biotechnology. All told, DOE JGI… [Read More]

Marine Metagenomics Elucidate Role in Global Carbon Cycle

Marine eukaryotes such as diatoms and phytoplankton sequester as much as 50 billion tons or gigatons of carbon annually, but very little is known about the tiny microorganisms that primarily make up this group, and their role in the global carbon cycle. To help answer this question, a team led by DOE JGI collaborator Alexandra… [Read More]

Frog genome project on NIH Research Matters

A team of scientists led by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Joint Genome Institute and the University of California, Berkeley, set out to add to the set of X. tropicalis research tools by sequencing its genome. The team, which included researchers from NIH’s National Library of Medicine (NLM) and National Cancer Institute (NCI), was… [Read More]

Volvox carteri project on Astrobiology magazine

“If you think of proteins in terms of lego bricks, Chlamydomonas already had a great lego set,” says James Umen, assistant professor in the Plant Molecular and Cellular Biology Laboratory at the Salk Institute. “Volvox didn’t have to buy a new one, and instead could experiment with what it had inherited from its ancestor.”  Read… [Read More]

Volvox carteri project on NCTimes.com Blog

The study was published in the July 9 issue of Science. It may also be pertinent to the ongoing development of algae as a biofuel petroleum replacement, a major focus of research in San Diego and at the federal level. The team compared the genome of Volvox, a multicellular spherical algae, with that of the… [Read More]

Volvox carteri project in Algae Industry Magazine

One contribution that may inform biofuels research is reported in the July 9 issue of Science, where researchers led by the DOE Joint Genome Institute (JGI) and the Salk Institute presented the 138 million nucleotide genome of Volvox carteri, a multicellular alga that captures light energy through photosynthesis. The DOE is supporting research into the… [Read More]

S. commune genome makes three biomass-degrading fungi characterized

Many sequencing projects at the DOE JGI focus on identifying enzymes in organisms such as fungi that can break down cellulose in plant mass to help bring down the cost of biofuel production. As DOE JGI Fungal Genomics Program head Igor Grigoriev noted, “When we go into a forest we don’t see layers of dead… [Read More]