Crop breeders have harnessed polyploidy to increase fruit and flower size, and confer stress tolerance traits. Researchers relied on a model grass system and pan-genomes to learn the origins, evolution and development of plant polyploids. [Read More]

In Nature Genetics, a multi-institutional team has sequenced and assembled the genomes of the major cotton lineages. [Read More]

JGI-led team significantly expands the global diversity of large and giant viruses. While the microbes in a single drop of water could outnumber a small city’s population, the number of viruses in the same drop—the vast majority not harmful to humans could be even larger. Viruses infect bacteria, archaea and eukaryotes, and they range in… [Read More]

Journal publication caps JGI pilot project with fledgling Florida high school scientists. The Florida Everglades evokes images of fanboats skimming over swamps, while alligators peer through the waters and clouds of insects hover just above. Described as a “river of grass” that stretches some 580,000 square miles across southern Florida, they encompass a wide range… [Read More]

Proposals aim to sequence and annotate genomes from Antarctica to Africa to global oceans. Through the Community Science Program of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Joint Genome Institute (JGI), a DOE Office of Science user facility, 24 large-scale proposals have been accepted from 70 full submissions based on 92 letters of intent. Additionally, 40… [Read More]

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]

Machine learning approach significantly expands inovirus diversity. To answer the question, “Where’s Waldo?” readers need to look for a number of distinguishing features. Several characters may be spotted with a striped scarf, striped hat, round-rimmed glasses, or a cane, but only Waldo will have all of these features. As described July 22, 2019, in Nature… [Read More]

International consortium offers guidelines, best practices for characterizing uncultivated viruses. Microbes in, on and around the planet are said to outnumber the stars in the Milky Way Galaxy. The total number of viruses is expected to vastly exceed even that calculation. While many viruses remain unknown and uncultivated, advances in genome sequencing and analyses have… [Read More]

A surprising wealth of novel giant viruses has been found in a soil ecosystem. Characterizing the diversity of microbial cells in a handful of soil is so complex it was considered impossible. To date, only a small fraction of the microbes residing in, on and around soils have been identified as part of efforts to… [Read More]

Insights from a comparative analysis of five truffle-forming fungal species. While the sight of black or white truffles being shaved over on pasta is generally considered a sign of dining extravagance, they play an important role in soil ecosystem services. Truffles are the fruiting bodies of the ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungal symbionts residing on host plant… [Read More]