WALNUT CREEK, Calif.—Carbon dioxide may be the most name-dropped greenhouse gas, but methane is 20 times more potent. In 2009, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency calculated that 20 percent of the nation’s human-related methane emissions were attributable to livestock digestive processes. In Australia, livestock emissions account for 12 percent of the country’s total greenhouse gas… [Read More]

WALNUT CREEK, Calif.—In order to realize the full potential of advanced biofuels that are derived from non-food sources of lignocellulosic biomass—e.g., agricultural, forestry, and municipal waste, and crops such as  poplar, switchgrass and miscanthus—new technologies that can efficiently and cost-effectively break down this biomass into simple sugars are required. Existing biomass pretreatment technologies are typically… [Read More]

WALNUT CREEK, Calif.—Fungi play key roles in nature and are valued for their great importance in industry. Consider citric acid, a key additive in several foods and pharmaceuticals produced on a large-scale basis for decades with the help of the filamentous fungus Aspergillus niger. While A. niger is an integral player in the carbon cycle,… [Read More]

WALNUT CREEK, Calif.—The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science Early Career Research Program has awarded a grant to DOE Joint Genome Institute scientist Susannah Green Tringe to conduct genomic studies of microbial communities (metagenomes) in restored wetlands around the San Francisco Bay-Delta region of California. Tringe, who heads the DOE JGI Metagenome Program,… [Read More]

WALNUT CREEK, Calif.— It’s not quite Christmas, but the DNA sequence of a small plant that resembles the seasonal conifers is providing biofuels researchers with information that could influence the development of candidate biofuel feedstock plants and offering botanists long-awaited insights into plant evolution. “When you burn coal, you’re burning Selaginella’s ancestors,” said Purdue University… [Read More]

WALNUT CREEK, Calif.— Algae play key roles in the global carbon cycle, helping sequester significant amounts of carbon. Some algal species can bloom, or become so numerous, that they discolor coastal waters and reduce the amount of light and oxygen available in the ecosystem. Previously known as “red tide,” the term “harmful algal blooms” (HABs)… [Read More]

WALNUT CREEK, Calif.—A tiny crustacean that has been used for decades to develop and monitor environmental regulations is the first of its kind to have its genetic code sequenced and analyzed—revealing the most gene-packed animal characterized to date. The information deciphered could help researchers develop and conduct real-time monitoring systems of the effects of environmental… [Read More]

WALNUT CREEK, Calif.—Cows eat grass—this has been observed for eons.  From this fibrous diet consisting mainly of the tough to degrade plant cell wall materials cellulose and hemicellulose, substances of no nutritional value to most animals, ruminants manage to extract all they need to nourish themselves, their progeny and their keepers.   And now, the cow,… [Read More]

Baking sourdough bread requires a starter, and so do mammalian guts, which are first colonized by microbial communities from the mother and then acquire more microbes over time. These gut microbial communities are important for maintaining health and combating disease, and it’s why the Human Microbiome Project launched by the National Institutes of Health in… [Read More]