Researchers show deviations in an amino acid’s code can occur naturally. Four letters – A, C, G and T – stand in for the four chemical bases that store information in DNA. A sequence of these same four letters, repeating in a particular order, genetically defines an organism. Within the genome sequence are shorter, three-letter… [Read More]

Research team taps EMSL, DOE JGI to harness promising fungi found in manure. Nature’s figured it out already, how to best break down food into fuel. Now scientists have caught up, showing that fungi found in the guts of goats, horses and sheep could help fill up your gas tank too. The researchers report in… [Read More]

First marine flowering plant genome provides clues on how crops could adapt to saline environments. To mitigate carbon emissions in the atmosphere, researchers have turned to sinks–reservoirs that accumulate and store carbon such as tropical rainforests, but also including a variety of terrestrial plants as well as oceans. However, another lesser known but very large… [Read More]

Metagenomics and single cell strategies help reveal a novel bacterial phylum. Although global microbial populations are orders of magnitude larger than nearly any other population in, on or around the planet, only a fraction has been identified thus far. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is seeking to uncover the true extent of the planet’s… [Read More]

2016 Community Science Program proposals build upon DOE JGI-generated reference genomes. The U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute (DOE JGI), a DOE Office of Science User Facility, has announced that 27 new projects have been selected for the 2016 Community Science Program (CSP). “These new CSP projects, selected through our external review process, exploit… [Read More]

Identifying pathways in algae that produce oil without killing them While most people might know some algae as “pond scum,” to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), they are tiny organisms that could provide a source of sustainable fuels. Like plants, they can convert light into energy-rich chemical compounds; unlike plants, they require less space… [Read More]

The rapid explosion in the throughput of DNA sequencing due to new technology platforms is fueling an increase in the number of sequenced microbial genomes and driving much greater availability of these data to the research community. Traditionally, identifying the microorganisms selected for sequencing is often decided on the basis of a single universal marker… [Read More]

Collaborative work culminates in evidence of a single candidate bacterial phylum. The number of microbes found on Earth has been compared to the number of stars in the Milky Way. Yet the proportion of those microbes that can actually be grown under laboratory conditions is so small it would be akin to those stars that… [Read More]