This is a proposal to develop the most advanced systems-level understanding of transcriptional regulation of grass growth. Brachypodium distachyon is a model system for the study of energy crops such as sorghum, miscanthus, and switchgrass, and the team’s approach depends on a unique combination of reagents that were developed in collaboration with JGI. The identification… [Read More]

The proposed study will advance the sequencing of the type strains of prokaryotes and initiate the functional genomics of understudied groups. The goal of these studies is to improve our understanding of gene function for a wide variety of prokaryotes. Ultimately, a predictive model of prokaryotic life on earth will be developed to unite gene… [Read More]

47-55 percent of the terrestrial carbon is transported and processed in rivers. Terrestrial carbon is generally considered to be resistant to aquatic microbial metabolism. However, recent evidence suggests that at soil-aquatic interfaces terrestrial carbon can be respired by aquatic microorganism at the cost of low carbon use efficiency thus contributing to CO2-fluxes to the atmosphere…. [Read More]

The filamentous fungus Neurospora crassa is an important model organism for fungal conversion of biomass. It is unknown how DNA structure is altered in response to stimuli to change expression levels of genes involved in biomass conversion. The goal is to define the global regulatory network of DNA structures in N. crassa and its impact… [Read More]

Green algae are important contributors to global carbon cycling and hold great promise as feedstocks for biomass and biotechnology applications. To date, breeding and natural variation of green algae have not been exploited for strain improvement due to lack of foundational knowledge about strain diversity and sexual cycles. This project will investigate natural strain diversity,… [Read More]