WALNUT CREEK, CA–Rising to accommodate the scientific community’s interest in harnessing the potential of the microbial world, the U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute (DOE JGI) has made Version 2.2 of the Integrated Microbial Genomes (IMG) data management system available to the public. The new version of IMG contains a total of 2,815 genomes… [Read More]

WALNUT CREEK, CA–Toward the goal of harnessing the power of nature through DNA sequencing, the DOE Joint Genome Institute (DOE JGI) has announced the latest Community Sequencing Program (CSP) portfolio. These plant and microbial targets–most with implications for helping wean the nation’s dependence on fossil fuel–total some 21 billion nucleotides of DNA sequence capacity allocated… [Read More]

WALNUT CREEK, CA–With the advent of more powerful and economical DNA sequencing technologies, gene discovery and characterization is transitioning from single-organism studies to revealing the potential biotechnology applications embedded in communities of microbial genomes, or metagenomes. The field of metagenomics is still in its infancy–the equivalent of the early days of the California Gold Rush,… [Read More]

WALNUT CREEK, CA–As interest in the rising number of newly characterized microbial genomes mounts, powerful computational tools become critical for the management and analysis of these data to enable strategies for such challenges as harvesting the potential of carbon-neutral bioenergy sources and coping with global climate change. The Integrated Microbial Genomes (IMG) data management system… [Read More]

WALNUT CREEK, CA–On the road to making biofuels more economically competitive with fossil fuels, there are significant potholes to negotiate. For cellulosic ethanol production, one major detour has being addressed with the characterization of the genetic blueprint of the fungus Pichia stipitis, by the U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute (DOE JGI) and collaborators… [Read More]

WALNUT CREEK, CA–On the one-year anniversary of the launch of the experimental metagenome data management and analysis system, IMG/M, the U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute (DOE JGI) has released the latest upgrade. Targeting DOE JGI’s expanding user base, IMG/M provides tools for analyzing the functional capability of microbial communities based on their metagenome… [Read More]

WALNUT CREEK, CA–Version 2.0 of the Integrated Microbial Genomes (IMG) data management system of the U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute (DOE JGI) has been released to the public. The content of IMG 2.0 has been entirely refreshed and extended with the latest versions of genomes available from the National Center for Biotechnology Information’s… [Read More]

WALNUT CREEK, CA–With public concerns at a fevered pitch over the bacterial contamination of spinach, it is easy to lose track of how bland and deprived our world would be without the contribution to our food supply of such benign microbial players as lactic acid-producing bacteria. Researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome… [Read More]