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Big Plant Genomes: Formerly Intractable, No Longer Insurmountable

DOE JGI researchers have developed an assembly and mapping strategy for any species, including large and complex genomes. The Science: Through a combination of high-throughput sequencing, high performance computing, and genetic mapping, DOE JGI researchers have derived a sequence assembly for the highly repetitive plant genome of bread wheat (Triticum aestivum). The Impact: The researchers… [Read More]

Soil bacteria and Setaria in R&D Magazine

“Our results show that healthy growth can be achieved by combining certain soil bacteria with grasses, even when plants are grown in extremely nitrogen-deprived soil,” said study coauthor Richard Ferrieri, director of Brookhaven Lab’s Radiochemistry and Biological Imaging Program. “We plan to apply this method to other crop systems, including bioenergy grasses like sorghum, switchgrass,… [Read More]

A science ambassador at the NSBE Convention

As part of Berkeley Lab Director Paul Alivisatos’ Diversity & Inclusion Initiative, our own Steve Wilson served as a Lab science ambassador to the National Society of Black Engineers’ (NSBE) 41st Annual Convention on March 25-29, 2015 in Anaheim, CA. Wilson was part of a delegation including representatives from the Workforce Development & Education and Human Resources… [Read More]

Operations Deputy Ray Turner on Why Diversity Matters

“What I’ve found over the last nine years working in a more liberal and diverse environment at the JGI is that there are huge benefits from diversity in the workplace, the main one being that you just simply get better ideas with a more diverse group of people within your department or organization.” Our Operations… [Read More]

Longer DNA Fragments Reveal Rare Species Diversity

New sequence assembly technologies help reconstruct environmental microbial communities. Many microbes cannot be cultivated in a laboratory setting, hindering attempts to understand Earth’s microbial diversity. Since microbes are heavily involved in, and critically important to environmental processes from nutrient recycling, to carbon processing, to the fertility of topsoils, to the health and growth of plants… [Read More]

Potential new bacterial phylum in The Scientist

At the US Department of Energy (DOE) Joint Genome Institute User Meeting held in Walnut Creek, California, last week, researchers announced the genomic identification of a potential new bacterial phylum, Candidatus Kryptonia, based on their study of samples isolated from four hot springs located in North America and Asia. A talk presented by our postdoc… [Read More]

Targeted Sorting of Microbial Cells

DOE JGI is enabling collaborators to develop a universally applicable technique for studying microbial metabolic activities. The Science: A team led by University of Vienna researchers has developed a way to identify and sort single microbial cells through a probe-independent process that uses heavy water (laced with deuterium) which is then incorporated into mostly lipids… [Read More]

Characterizing Permafrost Microbes in a Changing Climate

In the effort to curb climate change by reducing global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, thawing permafrost poses a critical challenge. These reservoirs of frozen organic matter embedded in Arctic soils are one of the major (~1.5 billion tons) stores of carbon on Earth. One of the abiding concerns regarding permafrost is that as global temperatures… [Read More]

Ultra-small bacteria project in Huffington Post

“These newly described ultra-small bacteria are an example of a subset of the microbial life on earth that we know almost nothing about,” says Jill Banfield, a Senior Faculty Scientist in Berkeley Lab’s Earth Sciences Division and a UC Berkeley professor in the departments of Earth and Planetary Science and Environmental Science, Policy and Management…. [Read More]