The disease that causes leaf mold on a tomato was first reported in the 1800s but hasn’t posed a major economic threat for several decades. Needle blight affects pine species around the world, causing severe economic losses. At first glance, the diseases appear unrelated but they are both caused by related fungal plant pathogens from…
C&EN covers microbiomes for biofuels development
Any new technology that emerges from animal microbiome mining would need to improve upon the proprietary enzyme systems already in companies’ arsenals. For example, enzyme company Novozymes is already marketing cellulase enzymes from Trichoderma reesei, a fungus originally discovered because it was degrading cotton military uniforms and canvas tents in the South Pacific during World War…
Cornell-led cassava project in GenomeWeb
The international partners in the Cornell-led Next Generation Cassava Breeding project plan to use genome sequencing and analysis to identify genes linked to traits that could be used to improve the breeding process. They hope to shorten the breeding cycle for new cassava down to six years and to give plant breeders more accurate evaluations…
DOE JGI partners Cornell on cassava project
Cassava, a rough and ready root crop that has long been the foundation of food security in Africa is finally getting the respect it deserves. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Department for International Development of the United Kingdom (DFID) are investing $25.2 million to improve the staple crop’s productivity and build human…
Cheryl Kerfeld on IMG-ACT in The Scientist
“Bioinformatics has become such an integral part of research. And being able to do this, to use these tools in an informed way and in a way that’s somewhat discerning . . . is really important,” explains Cheryl Kerfeld, director of the Genomics and Bioinformatics Education Program at the Department of Energy’s Joint Genome…
A photosynthetic pathway for mats under anoxic conditions
Many microbes are unculturablebecause they do not thrive when extracted from their habitats. Studies conducted within the context of a group allows researchers to see the interactions taking place and use the clues provided to identify the individual roles of the microorganisms. Photosynthetic microbial mats fix carbon in the day, but it turns out that…
Tiny Algae Shed Light on Photosynthesis as a Dynamic Property
One of the first chemical reactions children learn is the recipe for photosynthesis, combining carbon dioxide, water and solar energy to produce organic compounds. Many of the world’s most important photosynthetic eukaryotes such as plants did not develop the ability to combine these ingredients themselves. Rather, they got their light-harnessing organelles—chloroplasts—indirectly by stealing them from…
Yellowstone yields novel achaeon and candidate Archaea phylum
When a third branch to the Tree of Life was proposed several decades ago, the evidence used to support the need to recognize the kingdom Archaea came in the form of two divisions of organisms that could not be categorized as Eukaryotes or Bacteria. Since then, several more archaeal phyla have been recognized, many of them…
DOE JGI Director Rubin’s keynote at the UCSF Institute for Human Genetics 2012 Symposium
The [UCSF Institute for Human Genetics 2012] symposium led off with geneticist Eddy Rubin, MD, PhD, whose presentation demonstrated that genetic studies are being applied to human problems that extend even beyond the realm of medicine. Rubin – a scientist who oversaw the sequencing and analysis of 13 percent of the human genome as part of the…
Button mushroom genome in Scientist Live
The analysis of the inner workings of the world’s most cultivated mushroom was published online the week of October 8 in the journal, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) in collaboration with two-dozen institutions, including Bristol, led by the French National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA) and the U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome…