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How Black Fungi Adapt to Extremes

Black fungi spread in diverse extreme environments playing a crucial role by recycling organic matter, enabling nutrient uptake. They are also involved in biogeochemical processes, including rock transformations, bioweathering, mineral formation. The STRES project aims to dig into the genome diversity and metabolites involved in stress response to: i) gain insights into the evolutionary processes allowing black fungi to successfully adapt to extremes; ii) clarify their role in the functioning and balance in extreme-ecosystems; iii) explore the role of melanin in energy processes. [Read More]

Plant-Microbe Interactions of a Wood Decay Fungus

This research project focuses on elucidating the plant-microbe interactions of the wood decay fungus Perenniporia fraxinea, a serious pathogen of hardwood trees. Multi-omics analyses will reveal the comprehensive mechanisms and key fungal genes involved in the wood infection and degradation processes will be identified. Furthermore, key fungal proteins involved in the processes will be biochemically characterized and subjected to chemical screening in our efforts to identify specific inhibitors with potential as novel wood-protective agents against P. fraxinea and related wood-decay fungi. [Read More]

Microbial Roles in Plant Drought Tolerance in the Sahel

The Sahel region in West Africa is highly vulnerable to drought, endangering the livelihood of millions of millet subsistence farmers in the region. However, a solution has been revealed; when farmers grown millet in close proximity with native woody shrub gueira, the millet has greater biomass and yields. We predict that the millet-associated microbial community is influenced by the shrub such that the microbes are able to confer better drought resistance to their host millet in the presence of the shrub. We will characterize the metagenomes of millet to test this hypothesis. [Read More]

A Step Toward Controlling Soybean Rust

The United States is the world’s leading soybean producer, and soybeans are used to produce biodiesel. The fungus Phakopsora pachyrhizi causes Asian Soybean Rust (ASR) and is the major pathogen of soybean. Left uncontrolled, soybean rust could reduce crop yields by as much as 90 percent. As part of the DOE Joint Genome Institute’s 2016… [Read More]

Meet a JGI Postdoc: Ping-Hung Hsieh

From September 16-20, 2019, we introduce you to some of the postdocs at the JGI in honor of National Postdoc Appreciation Week, which recognizes the contributions of these early career researchers. Through a series of hard-hitting questions, we find out what drives each one.   What are you working on? My postdoc research in the Synthetic… [Read More]

Meet a JGI Postdoc: Ritesh Mewalal

From September 16-20, 2019, we introduce you to some of the postdocs at the JGI in honor of National Postdoc Appreciation Week, which recognizes the contributions of these early career researchers. Through a series of hard-hitting questions, we find out what drives each one.   What are you working on? Beneficial plant-microbe interactions alter valuable… [Read More]

Meet a JGI Postdoc: Kyle Hartman

From September 16-20, 2019, we introduce you to some of the postdocs at the JGI in honor of National Postdoc Appreciation Week, which recognizes the contributions of these early career researchers. Through a series of hard-hitting questions, we find out what drives each one.   What are you working on? I am a member of the… [Read More]

Meet a JGI Postdoc: Sara Calhoun

From September 16-20, 2019, we introduce you to some of the postdocs at the JGI in honor of National Postdoc Appreciation Week, which recognizes the contributions of these early career researchers. Through a series of hard-hitting questions, we find out what drives each one.   What are you working on? I have two main projects:… [Read More]

What Happens Underground Influences Global Nutrient Cycles

DOE user facilities EMSL and JGI announce FY 2020 collaborative FICUS projects. Through the Facilities Integrating Collaborations for User Science (FICUS) program, two Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science national user facilities—the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL) and the DOE Joint Genome Institute (JGI)—have selected 11 proposals for support from 53 received through a… [Read More]

Scaling Up Existing Skill Sets

Over the course of the summer, the JGI-UC Merced Genomics Internship paired six UC Merced students with seven JGI researchers for bioinformatics internship opportunities in fields ranging from plant-microbe interactions to functional genomics. Hear from five of the Summer 2019 interns, who briefly shared their experiences below.   Name: Noelle Anderson Class Year: At the… [Read More]