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Dry rot (Serpula) project in Biofuels Journal

“For example, if you go back far enough in time to the period when trees were developing, there was no way to break lignocellulose down, which led to the coal seams we tap today.“When the fungi figured out how to break down lignocellulose, the coevolution of the fungi and trees kick-started the carbon cycle again.”… [Read More]

Dry rot (Serpula) genome project on Greenwire

Researchers have sequenced the genome for brown rot — also known as dry rot — in a step that could have applications for biofuels and better understanding of forest carbon cycling. Dry rot, a scourge of homeowners, is a fungus that decays wood by attacking its sugars — cellulose and hemicellulose — and working around… [Read More]

Dry rot (Serpula) genome project on WalesOnline

WELSH scientists are looking at harnessing the power of the virulent fungus which causes dry rot to help make biofuels of the future. Closer examination of the damaging fungus Serpula lacrymans as part of an international project led by Swansea University could also hold the key to protecting buildings from dry rot. Read more at… [Read More]

Serpula genome project on MyCor Fungal Web Genomics

The other good news of this Bastille Day: our paper on the Serpula lacrymans genome is reported online July 14 in Science Express. The Domestic Dry Rot (Serpula lacrymans, Basidiomycete, Coniophoraceae) comprises two subgroups, S. lacrymans varshastensis, found in montane conifer forests in the Himalayan foothills, and S. lacrymans var lacrymans, cause of building dry rot, which diverged in historic time [Kauserud et al. (2007) Mol. Ecol.16: 3350-3360].  Read… [Read More]

Mycosphaerella genome project in Capital Press

Septoria typically infects young seedlings that have recently emerged, creating lesions, and spreading to the higher leaves. It can affect yield and quality, Goodwin said. Control methods are typically fungicide sprays, he noted. Igor Grigoriev, of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Joint Genome Institute in Walnut Creek, Calif., has been sequencing the genomes of other… [Read More]

Wallaby Yields Insight Into Limiting Methane

Research published in the June 30 edition of Science Express features an analysis of the microbial content of the Tammar wallaby gut, which may inform strategies for diminishing greenhouse gas emissions from other ruminants. Selected as a sequencing target by the DOE JGI’s Community Sequencing Program (CSP) in 2007, scientists had became interested in these mini… [Read More]

DOE JGI/JBEI collaboration in DomesticFuels.com

Researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Joint Genome Institute (JGI) and the Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) at DOE’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory are trying to discover salt-loving organisms that may be more efficient in treating biomass and improve sugar yield for biofuel production. The class of solvents known as ionic liquids, are liquid forms of salt that… [Read More]

UCLA microbiologists find energy-efficient structures in archaeon

a type of Archaea known as Methanosprillum hungatei contains incredibly efficient energy-storage structures. The findings are published in the July 5 issue of the journal Environmental Microbiology. M. hungatei is of considerable environmental significance because of its unique ability to form symbiotic relationships with syntrophic bacteria to break down organic matter and produce methane gas. Yet while their important role in… [Read More]

DOE JGI/JBEI collaboration in Green Car Congress

Such salt-tolerant enzymes, particularly cellulases, offer significant advantages for industrial utility over conventional enzymes, they said. The group plans to expand this research to develop a full complement of enzymes that is tailored for the ionic liquid process technology with the goal of demonstrating a complete biomass-to-sugar process, one they hope can enable the commercial… [Read More]