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    Designer DNA: JGI Helps Users Blaze New Biosynthetic Pathways
    In a special issue of the journal Synthetic Biology, JGI scientific users share how they’ve worked with the JGI DNA Synthesis Science Program and what they’ve discovered through their collaborations.

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    A genetic element that generates targeted mutations, called diversity-generating retroelements (DGRs), are found in viruses, as well as bacteria and archaea. Most DGRs found in viruses appear to be in their tail fibers. These tail fibers – signified in the cartoon by the blue virus’ downward pointing ‘arms’— allow the virus to attach to one cell type (red), but not the other (purple). DGRs mutate these ‘arms,’ giving the virus opportunities to switch to different prey, like the purple cell. (Courtesy of Blair Paul)
    A Natural Mechanism Can Turbocharge Viral Evolution
    A team has discovered that diversity generating retroelements (DGRs) are not only widespread, but also surprisingly active. In viruses, DGRs appear to generate diversity quickly, allowing these viruses to target new microbial prey.

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    Algae growing in a bioreactor. (Dennis Schroeder, NREL)
    Refining the Process of Identifying Algae Biotechnology Candidates
    Researchers combined expertise at the National Labs to screen, characterize, sequence and then analyze the genomes and multi-omics datasets for algae that can be used for large-scale production of biofuels and bioproducts.

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    This data image shows the monthly average sea surface temperature for May 2015. Between 2013 and 2016, a large mass of unusually warm ocean water--nicknamed the blob--dominated the North Pacific, indicated here by red, pink, and yellow colors signifying temperatures as much as three degrees Celsius (five degrees Fahrenheit) higher than average. Data are from the NASA Multi-scale Ultra-high Resolution Sea Surface Temperature (MUR SST) Analysis product. (Courtesy NASA Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive Center)
    When “The Blob” Made It Hotter Under the Water
    Researchers tracked the impact of a large-scale heatwave event in the ocean known as “The Blob” as part of an approved proposal through the Community Science Program.

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    A plantation of poplar trees. (David Gilbert)
    Genome Insider podcast: THE Bioenergy Tree
    The US Department of Energy’s favorite tree is poplar. In this episode, hear from ORNL scientists who have uncovered remarkable genetic secrets that bring us closer to making poplar an economical and sustainable source of energy and materials.

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    Ian Rambo, graduate student at UT-Austin, was a DOE Graduate Student Research Fellow at the JGI
    Virus-Microbe Interactions of Mud Island Mangroves
    Through the DOE Office of Science Graduate Student Research (SCGSR) program, Ian Rambo worked on part of his dissertation at the JGI. The chapter focuses on how viruses influence carbon cycling in coastal mangroves.

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    HPCwire Editor's Choice Award (logo crop) for Best Use of HPC in the Life Sciences
    JGI Part of Berkeley Lab Team Awarded Best Use of HPC in Life Sciences
    The HPCwire Editors Choice Award for Best Use of HPC in Life Sciences went to the Berkeley Lab team comprised of JGI and ExaBiome Project team, supported by the DOE Exascale Computing Project for MetaHipMer, an end-to-end genome assembler that supports “an unprecedented assembly of environmental microbiomes.”

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    With a common set of "baseline metadata," JGI users can more easily access public data sets. (Steve Wilson)
    A User-Centered Approach to Accessing JGI Data
    Reflecting a structural shift in data access, the JGI Data Portal offers a way for users to more easily access public data sets through a common set of metadata.

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    Phytozome portal collage
    A More Intuitive Phytozome Interface
    Phytozome v13 now hosts upwards of 250 plant genomes and provides users with the genome browsers, gene pages, search, BLAST and BioMart data warehouse interfaces they have come to rely on, with a more intuitive interface.

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    screencap from Amundson and Wilkins subsurface microbiome video
    Digging into Microbial Ecosystems Deep Underground
    JGI users and microbiome researchers at Colorado State University have many questions about the microbial communities deep underground, including the role viral infection may play in other natural ecosystems.

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    Yeast strains engineered for the biochemical conversion of glucose to value-added products are limited in chemical output due to growth and viability constraints. Cell extracts provide an alternative format for chemical synthesis in the absence of cell growth by isolating the soluble components of lysed cells. By separating the production of enzymes (during growth) and the biochemical production process (in cell-free reactions), this framework enables biosynthesis of diverse chemical products at volumetric productivities greater than the source strains. (Blake Rasor)
    Boosting Small Molecule Production in Super “Soup”
    Researchers supported through the Emerging Technologies Opportunity Program describe a two-pronged approach that starts with engineered yeast cells but then moves out of the cell structure into a cell-free system.

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    These bright green spots are fluorescently labelled bacteria from soil collected from the surface of plant roots. For reference, the scale bar at bottom right is 10 micrometers long. (Rhona Stuart)
    A Powerful Technique to Study Microbes, Now Easier
    In JGI's Genome Insider podcast: LLNL biologist Jennifer Pett-Ridge collaborated with JGI scientists through the Emerging Technologies Opportunity Program to semi-automate experiments that measure microbial activity in soil.

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    In their approved proposal, Frederick Colwell of Oregon State University and colleagues are interested in the microbial communities that live on Alaska’s glacially dominated Copper River Delta. They’re looking at how the microbes in these high latitude wetlands, such as the Copper River Delta wetland pond shown here, cycle carbon. (Courtesy of Rick Colwell)
    Monitoring Inter-Organism Interactions Within Ecosystems
    Many of the proposals approved through JGI's annual Community Science Program call focus on harnessing genomics to developing sustainable resources for biofuels and bioproducts.

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    Coloring the water, the algae Phaeocystis blooms off the side of the sampling vessel, Polarstern, in the temperate region of the North Atlantic. (Katrin Schmidt)
    Climate Change Threatens Base of Polar Oceans’ Bountiful Food Webs
    As warm-adapted microbes edge polewards, they’d oust resident tiny algae. It's a trend that threatens to destabilize the delicate marine food web and change the oceans as we know them.

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    Integrating JGI Capabilities for Exploring Earth’s Secondary Metabolome
    Natural Prodcast podcast: Nigel Mouncey
    JGI Director Nigel Mouncey has a vision to build out an integrative genomics approach to looking at the interactions of organisms and environments. He also sees secondary metabolism analysis and research as a driver for novel technologies that can serve all JGI users.

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Our Science
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June 29, 2012

A Rotten Coaltastrophe

Much of the world’s coal was generated 300-360 million years ago, during an era known as the Carboniferous period. But it may have come to an end from an unlikely source: fungus. An international team of scientists, including researchers at Clark University and the U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute (DOE JGI), has proposed… [Read More]

June 22, 2012

Some Enzymes Like it Hot

It sounds like a dream vacation: hang out in hot springs all day, converting sugar to alcohol. But that’s precisely what researchers are looking for in microbes to more efficiently break down plant matter into fermentable sugars for biofuel. And they found it in Dictyoglomus turgidum, in samples from Obsidian Hot Spring in Yellowstone National… [Read More]

June 15, 2012

Protein studies offer clues on how palm worms can take the heat

Hydrothermal vents behave like geysers at a national park, except that they erupt deep underwater in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. Though the water that shoots out of these vents can reach temperatures as high as 300°C (572°F), many animals and other organisms thrive in the surrounding area.  Two such extremophiles  are “palm worms,” named… [Read More]

June 1, 2012

Comparative genomics method to tag novel nitrogen-fixation genes

Nitrogen is crucial for plant growth but plants cannot harness it directly from the atmosphere. In the United States, legume crops such as soybeans and peas rely on nitrogen fertilizers to boost yields; in 2007, 13 million tons of industrially-produced fertilizers were applied. Soil bacteria such as Sinorhizobiummeliloti have a symbiotic relationship with plant hosts… [Read More]

May 25, 2012

Lessons from the adaptive strategies of a fungal pathogen

  by  ressaure Coniferous forests in Europe and North America have suffered several hundred million dollars in damages annually from the fungal pathogen Heterobasidion annosum. Aside from the economic losses, scientists are concerned by the white rot fungus that not only breaks down the wood for nutrients, but also releases the carbon dioxide trapped in the… [Read More]

May 18, 2012

Foxtail millet genome an improved reference for switchgrass

The DOE is interested in switchgrass as a prospective biofuels feedstock, but its genome is complicated because it has multiple copies of its chromosomes. As the world leader in sequencing plants and other organisms for their relevance to DOE missions, the DOE JGI has sequenced switchgrass and several other plants that are candidate plant feedstocks;… [Read More]

May 11, 2012

Microbes as the unknown variable in thawing permafrost

Permafrost covers a quarter of the Earth’s land surface and stores significant amounts of carbon. As global temperatures rise and cause the frozen soils to thaw, so have concerns on the fate of the stored carbon and on the global climate. One of the recent studies that looked at this question was conducted by researchers… [Read More]

April 20, 2012

Overcoming short-read genome sequence assembly challenges

The genome assembly challenges posed by short sequence reads from sequencing platforms such as 454/Roche and Illumina are well-documented; the lack of reference genome data can hinder attempts to put together the myriad of short DNA sequences. Researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology and the DOE JGI wanted to determine the impact of short… [Read More]

April 13, 2012

An alternative surrogate for gene discovery in switchgrass

Selected for the DOE JGI 2007 Community Sequencing Program because of traits such as high yield, perennial growth and low nutrient requirements, switchgrass is a promising candidate bioenergy crop that could be used to develop cellulosic biofuels. One of the challenges with sequencing switchgrass is the fact that it is a polyploid, containing multiple, full… [Read More]

April 6, 2012

Effects of symbiosis on a fungal transcriptome

The soils of the boreal forests in the northern latitudes are estimated to store more than three times the amount of carbon contained in the atmosphere or in plant life on land. Recent studies suggest the relationship between fungi on the forest floor, plants and the microbial communities at the plant roots (or rhizosphere) plays… [Read More]
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