Thanks to genome sequencing techniques such as those at the Department of Energy’s Joint Genome Institute in Walnut Creek, California, we now have a much better idea of what microbes are in soil, what they’re doing, and what proteins they’re producing. That’s important, because a handful of soil can teem with millions of microbes, some…
Thermophilic fungi in Scientific American
Heat-loving fungi could provide a key enzyme for making low cost biofuel, and a team of “mushroom detectives” from the Department of Energy’s Joint Genome Institute think they’ve just nailed their man – er, fungus. Read more at Scientific American
Thermophilic fungi in energyNOW!
Next-generation biofuel refining is based on tweaking enzymes to break down plant walls and convert biomass to fermentable sugars. The research has two main goals. One is to find ways to cut down the energy input needed for biofuel processing. Read more on energyNOW!
Thermophilic fungi in Walnut Creek Patch
Research on fungi at the Joint Genome Institute in Walnut Creek is heating up the nation’s efforts to develop biofuels as an alternative to fossil fuels. Read more on the Walnut Creek Patch
Advancing Next Gen Biofuels by Turning Up the Heat on Biomass Pretreatment Processes
WALNUT CREEK, Calif.—The nation’s Renewable Fuels Standard calls for annual production of 36 billion gallons of biofuel by 2022. One of the biggest hurdles to achieving this goal lies in optimizing the multistep process involved in breaking down plant biomass and then converting it into fermentable sugars that can be refined into fuel for our…
Structural Analysis of Cow and Hoatzin Microbial Communities
Inside the guts of many animals, microbes break down the plant fibers ingested as part of their diet. These microbes are of interest to bioenergy researchers who want to learn from nature and apply these cellulosic degradation capabilities toward biofuel production. To this end, at the JGI, several sequencing projects have focused on the microbial…
Genomic analysis of self-fertilizing fungi
Filamentous fungi help decay plant material, a process which has applications for producing biofuels and other products. The model organism for filamentous fungi is Neurospora tetrasperma. Neurospora tetrasperma rosette (Image by Namboori B. Raju, Stanford University) Selected for the DOE JGI’s 2007 Community Sequencing Program, the fungi is of interest to researchers such as studying…
DOE JGI’s Tringe in PopSci’s Brilliant 10
Susannah Green Tringe of the DOE Joint Genome Institute (DOE JGI) has been named one of 2011’s “Brilliant 10,” the annual list compiled by Popular Science magazine of top young researchers. In adding her name to the list, which appears in the October issue, the magazine recognized her $2.5 million grant from the DOE Early…
Soil biocrust microbial genome
One of the DOE JGI’s 2011 Community Sequencing Program projects involves studying biological soil crusts to understand their role in the global carbon cycle. Found in arid lands which make up nearly half of the planet’s total land mass, communities of lichens, mosses and cyanobacteria use soil particles to form biocrusts less than half an…
Tringe on Popular Science’s “Brilliant 10” List
WALNUT CREEK, Calif.—Susannah Green Tringe of the DOE Joint Genome Institute (DOE JGI) has been named one of 2011’s “Brilliant 10,” the annual list compiled by Popular Science magazine of top young researchers. In adding her name to the list, which appears in the October issue, the magazine recognized her $2.5 million grant from the…