The role of lakes in the global carbon budget has previously been underestimated. The total amount of organic matter stored in the sediments of lakes and reservoirs is estimated to exceed that stored in the sediments of the world’s oceans. Freshwater lakes can act as net sources or sinks of atmospheric carbon, and microbes mediate… [Read More]

Phakopsora pachyrhizi is responsible for Asian Soybean Rust (ASR) and is the major pathogen of soybean, causing severe losses in almost all soybean-growing areas. Nearly 300 billion tons of the legume are produced annually, and used primarily as feedstock and for bioenergy production. Yield damage caused by ASR can be dramatic (reported cases from 60… [Read More]

Cultivated grasses are the most abundant sustainable class of biomass that can be produced in the United States, and one of the Department of Energy’s candidate bioenergy feedstock crops is switchgrass. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are important regulatory molecules of vegetative development and stress response, though their specific roles in switchgrass and in bioenergy crop diversity in general… [Read More]

Aquatic fungi perform several important functions in natural ecosystems. Similar to terrestrial fungi, their predominant role is the decomposition of organic carbon. In freshwater streams, fungi are most efficient in transforming leaf-litter energy into biomass. Aquatic fungi are also capable of degrading manmade pollutants such as DDT, and sequestering metals such as cadmium. Despite being… [Read More]

Growing algae in wastewater provides sustainable biofuels production without competing with agriculture for land, and offers nutrient remediation services for wastewater treatment. The researchers have been growing naturally-occurring filamentous algal communities in wastewater but want to know more about the bacteria found in these communities. The team is interested in questions such as how these… [Read More]

The study of lignocellulose degradation is an important field of research due to its possible application in biofuel production. Fungi, specifically the Agaricomycetes, are notably good at breaking down the polymers in wood into simple sugars. To date, over 75 genomes of Agaricomycetes have been sequenced, predominantly by the DOE JGI. However, much remains to… [Read More]

The annual mean temperatures in boreal and arctic ecosystems in the past 50 years have increased at rates greater than the global mean. Additionally, these ecosystems contain large stores of soil organic carbon—that are trapped for a decade or longer. Rising global temperatures raise concerns about the fate of the stored carbon. In this project,… [Read More]

The powdery mildew fungi are one of the most ubiquitous plant pathogen groups worldwide. Powdery mildews likely share features with beneficial fungi in that they must beable to minimize host damage and defense activation while manipulating hosts into providing nutrients. The project focuses on the genomes of 11 powdery mildews, including 3 species that infect… [Read More]