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Seeding a salty agricultural future

Fungal genome offers insights into growing crops in salty environments. The Science: Researchers sequenced and analyzed the genome of an extremophilic fungus that has adapted to thrive in the Dead Sea. The Impact: The genome provides information on how the fungus can tolerate extremely salty conditions. As climate change continues to affect agricultural lands and… [Read More]

Defining function from “genomic dark matter”

Functional annotation reveals novel biomass-degrading enzymes from microbial genomes. The Science: Functional annotation allowed researchers to identify biomass-degrading enzymes in the 35 percent of genes in a genome that are considered “genomic dark matter.” The Impact: Identifying 17 putative biomass-degrading cellulases from the content of more than 5,500 microbial genomes is of use to bioenergy… [Read More]

Single species reveals a myriad of genomic variations

Single cell genomics reveals diversity of cyanobacteria subpopulations. The Science: Single cell genomics allowed researchers to examine the subpopulations of the marine microbe Prochlorococcus, affording a glimpse at “a new dimension of microdiversity.” The Impact: The cyanobacterial subpopulations were found to be distinct, comprised of “genomic backbones” made of highly conserved core gene alleles and… [Read More]

Salt Needed: Tolerance Lessons from a Dead Sea Fungus

Despite its name, the Dead Sea does support life, and not just in the sense of helping visitors float in its waters. Algae, bacteria, and fungi make up the limited number of species that can tolerate the extremely salty environment at the lowest point on Earth. Some organisms thrive in salty environments by lying dormant… [Read More]

A recipe for amplifying genomes cell by cell

Detailed protocol outlines steps for extracting ample DNA from uncultured microbes. The Science: Characterizing uncultured microbes starts with isolating and sequencing enough DNA from an environmental sample that may be as small as a single cell. The Impact: The protocol has been successfully employed to amplify the genomes of 201 single cells from uncultured microbes… [Read More]

#JGInPoetry – Genomics in Verse

Our call for verses to help us communicate our science yielded several poems, a couple of which even met the writing challenges we set. We’ve shared these on social media and we hope the muse continues to inspire as we look forward to receiving more poems about genomics, energy and environment.  “Ode to a Gutless… [Read More]

Going deep to improve maize transcriptome

Researchers employ RNA-Seq techniques to improve annotations for analysis. The Science: A team of researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute (DOE JGI), the University of California, Berkeley, and the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center generated an ultra-deep, high quality transcriptome–the fraction of the genome that provides information about gene activity–of maize…. [Read More]

Prochlorococcus “genomic backbones” study in The Scientist

“Some of us did not believe that microbes are infinitely diverse,” despite a prevailing assumption, said Steve Giovannoni, who studies bacterioplankton at Oregon State University and who was not involved in the study. “That very high diversity is channeled into patterns, and we’re starting to see what those patterns look like.” Read the full story in… [Read More]

Discovering diversity, one cell at a time

The game where one has to guess how many jelly beans or marbles can fill a jar should never be played with the cyanobacterium Prochlorococcus. By some estimates, in a single liter of water as many as 100 million cells of this tiny bacterium can be found. These important organisms serve as the base of… [Read More]