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Permafrost study referenced in ScienceNews

In Nature in December, a team of researchers at the Department of Energy’s Joint Genome Institute in Walnut Creek, Calif., and colleagues reported one such microbe’s draft genome — put together from DNA acquired from the semifrozen dirt in an Alaskan black spruce forest. The Alaskan microbe carries genes tuned to transform organic matter into methane, a finding that… [Read More]

1000 Fungal Genomes project in The Daily Barometer

Joey Spatafora, an associate professor at Oregon State University, is leading an international project to sequence the genomes of a thousand fungi, a project aptly named 1000 fungal genomes.    “It’s a really, really exciting time in fungal biology because we can sequence fungal genomes more easily than we could ten years ago,” Spatafora said. The Daily Barometer [Read More]

Cotton project in the Delta Farm Press

An international consortium, led by Professor Andrew Paterson of the University of Georgia, has made publicly available the first ‘gold-standard’ genome sequence for cotton. Cotton was among the first plants studied at the molecular level, and the sequence obtained by Paterson and his team is the culmination of a 20-plus year effort in the analysis… [Read More]

Permafrost metagenome study on VOA Special English report

The researchers say one gram of the soil could contain thousands of different kinds of microbes and billions of cells. They say these organisms had never before been cultured in a laboratory. JANET JANSSON:  “So more than ninety percent of those bacteria and other microorganisms in permafrost, we had no idea what they were.” Read… [Read More]

Tanja Woyke: Genome Technology 2011 Young Investigator

What inspired Tanja Woyke to pursue her current area of focus is also what makes it possible: single-cell genomic technology. “It allows one to sequence the genome of one individual microbial cell by amplifying its genome a billion-fold using a process called multiple displacement amplification,” she says. “I find this quite fascinating. Such an approach… [Read More]

Spider mite genome project in CBC News

“They can change the repertoire [of genes] that they’re using in order to be able to feed on hosts that they would not be adapted to,” said Miodrag Grbic, a University of Western Ontario biologist, who led an international project to sequence the spider mite’s genome. The results were published this week in the journal… [Read More]

Spider mite genome project in GenomeWeb

The spider mite, named for its ability to spin webs, belongs to an arthropod sub-group comprised of so-called chelicerates and is capable of consuming more than 1,100 plant species. This trait, coupled with its ability to develop resistance to most commonly used pesticides, have made it a potent pest, known for damaging ornamental plants and… [Read More]

DOE JGI research featured in io9

Last month I was lucky enough to visit one of the biggest genomics labs in the world. At the Joint Genome Institute (JGI) in Walnut Creek, CA, huge rooms full of genome sequencing machines work 24/7 to crunch the codes that create life. And the research here, funded by the US Department of Energy, has… [Read More]

Danforth Center highlights plant projects for CSP 2012

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Joint Genome Institute (JGI) has selected two projects from a highly competitive pool of applications, submitted by Danforth Plant Science Center Principal Investigators, Dr. Thomas Brutnell and Dr. Todd Mockler as part of its 2012 Community Sequencing Program (CSP). Read more at the Danforth Center News site. [Read More]

Permafrost soil metagenome study in Wired UK

As permafrost thaws, trapped frozen organic matter becomes accessible for microbes to degrade, releasing greenhouse gases as a byproduct. Understanding what sorts of microbes are in the ice is key to predicting the impact of the melting of permafrost soils.The US Department of Energy has teamed up with the Joint Genome Institute, the Earth Sciences Division of… [Read More]