Several plants sequenced by the DOE Joint Genome Institute have been considered “flagship” genomes due to their importance to DOE mission and plant science. Among these plants are poplar, the first tree sequenced and a candidate bioenergy feedstock, and soybean, the primary source of biodiesel in the United States. Other plant genomes are important for…
Peach genome project in Biofuels Digest
In California, the US Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute (DOE JGI) is working to isolate the “evergreen” locus in peaches, which extends the growing season of the plant. Said Daniel Rokhsar, head of the DOE JGI Eukaryotic Program, “In theory, it could be manipulated in poplar to increase the accumulation of biomass.” Peach genes…
Peach Genome Offers Insights into Breeding Strategies for Biofuels Crops
Rapidly growing trees like poplars and willows are candidate “biofuel crops” from which it is expected that cellulosic ethanol and higher energy content fuels can be efficiently extracted. Domesticating these crops requires a deep understanding of the physiology and genetics of trees, and scientists are turning to long-domesticated fruit trees for hints. The relationship between…
Large toolset for detecting genetic variation in poplars
Beyond their status as a fast-growing candidate biofuels feedstock.
Bacterial sequence to help understand ant fungal gardens
Leaf-cutter ant colonies are comprised of millions of ants harvesting hundreds of kilos of leaves annually for use in growing their primary food source, a fungus. The fungal gardens tended by these ants allow them to convert plant biomass on a very large scale. Bioenergy researchers are looking at the microbial composition of the fungal…
Comparing extremophile isolates from Yellowstone
Researchers isolated and sequenced four species of Hydrogenobaculum.
Sinking SOS levels lead to reduced salt tolerance
The Food and Agriculture Organization reported that salt levels in the soil is reducing the world’s agricultural lands at the rate of one percent a year. Concerns over feeding a growing global population with limited arable land have led to interest in developing salt-tolerant crops for food and fuel Found on the seashores of eastern…
Metagenomic study of methane in marine microbial communities
Methane is one of the most potent greenhouse gases and previous studies suggested that it is removed from the atmosphere through aerobic and anaerobic processes with the help of bacteria and archaea. Recent evidence suggests, however, that methane can be removed through other pathways involving as-yet unidentified microbes. To learn more about these pathways and…
“There’s a war going on in our oceans, a huge war, and we never even saw it,” said Stephen Giovannoni, a professor of microbiology at Oregon State University. “This is an important piece of the puzzle in how carbon is stored or released in the sea.” Read the full story at Futurity
Genome evolution with the help of plasmid gene pools
Plasmids are DNA molecules that can replicate independently of chromosomal DNA in a cell. This ability allows them to “collect” and move genes, such as through lateral gene transfer, and is a factor that allows prokaryotic genomes to evolve over time. To understand the depth and breadth of this plasmid gene pool in prokaryotes, researchers…