Genome scientists from the U.S. and Germany have assembled the first pages of a comprehensive encyclopedia of genomes of all the microbes on Earth. The results, published Dec. 24 in the journal Nature, will help biologists find new genes and fill out the branches of the “Tree of Life.”….
The project was funded primarily by the U.S. Department of Energy with support from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and the DSMZ.
A list of the GEBA pilot project targets can be found at www.archive.jgi.doe.gov/sequencing/GEBAseqplans.html. Videos of Eisen discussing the GEBA project can be viewed at the DOE JGI’s SciVee channel. Eisen also discussed the GEBA project at the Sackler Colloquia, conducted Nov. 1-3, 2009, in Irvine: http://sackler.nasmediaonline.org/2009/microbes/jon_eisen/jon_eisen.html.
More about the GEBA project at the UC Newsroom.