Cellulose and hemicellulose are considered the largest components of plant biomass and researchers have been looking for ways to break down these materials efficiently and cost-effectively for commercial cellulosic biofuel production. Many microbes that can break down biomass do so with the help of enzyme complexes known as cellulosomes, and the DOE JGI has been… [Read More]

Fibrobacter succinogenes is an anaerobic bacterium that breaks down plant cell wall biomass in ruminants and converts the cellulose into glucose. Sequenced at the DOE JGI for the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC), the 3.8 million base genome was completed and the information submitted to the National Center for Biotechnology Information in late 2009…. [Read More]

A five-tier metagenome classification system would  enable genomic researchers to better extract and understand data. (Image from Ivanova et al. Env Microbiol. 2010: 12(7):1803-1805.) Studying the genomes of microbial communities, or metagenomics, has been facilitated in the last few years by advances in sequencing technologies. However, as the DOE JGI’s Natalia Ivanova, Susannah Tringe, Dino… [Read More]

Breaking down organic wastes typically involves microbial communities of bacteria and archaea working in concert with methanogens, which remove the hydrogen generated during the degradation process. The interactions between these syntrophic communities are being studied to understand the roles these microbes play individually and and as whole. In the August 2010 issue of the journal… [Read More]