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Consortium Drives Genome Standards

As technology for sequencing genomes has become cheaper and more widely accessible, there is a greater urgency to institute a standardized, comprehensive language for researchers to share their findings. The Genomic Standards Consortium (GSC), an open-membership organization, is building a culture of collaboration to achieve greater efficiencies by spending less time combing through and interpreting inconsistent… [Read More]

GreenCut2: Algorithm to ID Plant Protein Functions

Researchers use genome sequencing to inform various cellular processes in land plants and algae, including the details of photosynthesis.  Despite the access to an increasing number of plant genomes (most of which have been generated by the DOE JGI), it remains difficult to correlate protein information with function, until now.  For example, identifying the role… [Read More]

GreenCut algorithm in Crop Biotech Update

Grossman and colleagues revealed that many of the GreenCut proteins are also present in ancient cyanobacteria, red algae, and diatoms. Further assessment of these proteins is expected to bring more discoveries about their functions in photosynthetic cells, and how the photosynthetic cells might be adapted to survive various environmental conditions. Read more in ISAAA’s Crop… [Read More]

GreenCut algorithm in e! Science News

Using advanced computational tools to analyze the genomes of 28 different plants and photosynthetic organisms, Grossman and his colleagues at the University of California in Los Angeles and the Joint Genome Institute of the Department of Energy were able to identify 597 proteins encoded on plant and green algal genomes, but that are not present… [Read More]

Cassava project in Bloomberg View

Over the past few years, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Joint Genome Institute has taken up the challenge to sequence additional starches that could make a significant difference in developing nations where corn and soybean are less important than such staples as foxtail millet, sorghum and cassava. Such crops, if engineered to be more nutritious,… [Read More]

Mycosphaerella project in Media Newswire

Enzymes often break down plant cell walls and begin removing nutrients, leading to the plant’s death. M. graminicola, however, enters the plant through stomata, small pores in the surface of leaves that allow for exchange of gases and water.  Goodwin said the fungus seems to lay dormant between plant cells, avoiding detection. It later infects… [Read More]

Mycosphaerella genome project in Agricultural Research

The pathogen that causes the disease, Mycosphaerella graminicola, has a long “silent period,” a latent stage during which it takes nutrition from the living plant and evades the host plant’s natural defenses. Scientists previously did not have a good understanding of how the organism infects wheat, or how the wheat plant itself resists the pathogen…. [Read More]

Mycosphaerella genome project in Farmers Guardian

SCIENTISTS have cracked the genetic code of septoria tritici – the most important foliar disease of wheat in the UK – and in doing so have gained an insight into how the disease is able to evade wheat’s natural defences. The researchers, who were funded by the BBSRC and others, hope the study, which reveals… [Read More]

First Finished Filamentous Fungus

An international consortium of scientists, including scientists from DOE JGI, have published the analysis for Mycosphaerella graminicola, the first filamentous fungus to be fully finished. Having the 39.7 million nucleotide genome available will enable researchers to learn more about the methods plant pathogens use to attack and damage crops, including those being considered for use… [Read More]

Tagging coral proteins adapting to global climate change

Over the past two decades, scientists have linked the decrease in the pH levels of the global oceans and the corresponding slowdown in coral growth to the increasing levels of carbon dioxide trapped in the atmosphere and which in turn are being absorbed in the ocean. As coral reefs are the primary habitat for several… [Read More]