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Fungal genomics and coal formation in Clean Technica

In an ironic twist, genomics researchers have stumbled upon an incredible discovery – the same ancestral fungus that ended coal formation millennia ago may now be able to boost biofuel and bioenergy production. Read more at Clean Technica [Read More]

Fungal genomics and coal formation in BioBased Digest

In Massachusetts, a group of 70 researchers led by David S. Hibbett of Clark University, in Worcester, Mass. and Igor V. Grigoriev of the Department of Energy’s Joint Genome Institute comparing the genomes of 31 fungi to determine how white rot fungi breaks down lignin and could be a major breakthrough in cellulosic ethanol technology. Read… [Read More]

White rot fungal genomics for biopulping in Biomass Magazine

Something special is happening with a research project focused on two white rot fungi genomes. Led by the U.S. DOE’s Joint Genome Institute, a team of international researchers is collaborating on a project to sequence and analyze the fungi strains to understand how enzymes present in the fungi break down plant biomass. It’s not the research… [Read More]

On white rot, coal and biofuels in ClimateWire

The evolutionary rise of a common fungus — white rot — is responsible for the end of underground coal formation 60 million years ago, scientists say in a paper published last week in Science.Ironically, that same fungus could now be a key element to help the world move away from fossil fuels by helping to create… [Read More]

Linking white rot fungi and the Carboniferous period in Scientific American

Now a new genomic analysis suggests why Earth significantly slowed its coal-making processes roughly 300 million years ago—mushrooms evolved the ability to break down lignin. “These white rot fungi are major decomposers of wood and the only organism that achieves substantial degradation of lignin,” explains mycologist David Hibbett of Clark University in Massachusetts, who led the research… [Read More]

Deepwater Horizon oil spill cleanup microbes project in Examiner.com

The first research effort reported in an article published online June 21, 2012, in the ISME Journal involved samples taken immediately after the Deepwater Horizon spill began and during the ensuing clean up efforts.The researchers found that a variety of microbes consumed parts of the oil spill selectively. Each group of microbes specifically targeted one group of… [Read More]

Deepwater Horizon cleanup microbes project in Oil and GasOnline

To learn more about the microbial community’s response to the oil spill, researchers led by Berkeley Lab senior scientist Janet Jansson availed themselves of the expertise and resources at two of the Lab’s national user facilities, the U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute (DOE JGI) and the Advanced Light Source (ALS). The work done… [Read More]

“JGI Looking Beyond Whole Genomes” – GenomeWeb’s In Sequence

The Department of Energy’s Joint Genome Institute has already churned out over 40 trillion bases of sequence data this year, using a variety of next-generation sequencers for applications including de novo whole genome sequencing, RNA-seq, ChIP-seq, methylation sequencing, and even some single cell sequencing.While the majority of its work is currently in whole genome sequencing,… [Read More]

DOE JGI’s IMG/M data system in Berkeley Lab’s release on the Human Microbiome Project

Berkeley Lab’s role in mapping the human microbiome revolves around big data, both analyzing it and making it available for scientists to use worldwide…. Berkeley Lab scientists developed and maintain a comparative analysis system called the Integrated Microbial Genomes and Metagenomes for the Human Microbiome Project (IMG/M HMP). It allows scientists to study the human microbiome… [Read More]