Although people rarely see the positives when their wooden houses begin to rot, scientists at the DOE JGI have found a silver lining in this destructive phenomenon. Through DNA sequencing and a comparative analysis with other fungi that DOE JGI has characterized, researchers have homed in on the mechanisms that the brown rot, Serpula lacrymans,…
Dry rot (Serpula) genome project on eNews Park Forest
In 2007 the US Department of Energy’s Joint Genome Institute sequenced Serpula lacrymans in order to see if the way it breaks down cellulose in wood could be harnessed for biofuel production. An international team analysing the genome have found the enzyme mechanisms that could explain the aggressive decay caused by this form of dry…
Dry rot (Serpula) project in Biofuels Journal
“For example, if you go back far enough in time to the period when trees were developing, there was no way to break lignocellulose down, which led to the coal seams we tap today.“When the fungi figured out how to break down lignocellulose, the coevolution of the fungi and trees kick-started the carbon cycle again.”…
Dry rot (Serpula) genome project on Greenwire
Researchers have sequenced the genome for brown rot — also known as dry rot — in a step that could have applications for biofuels and better understanding of forest carbon cycling. Dry rot, a scourge of homeowners, is a fungus that decays wood by attacking its sugars — cellulose and hemicellulose — and working around…
Dry rot (Serpula) genome project on WalesOnline
WELSH scientists are looking at harnessing the power of the virulent fungus which causes dry rot to help make biofuels of the future. Closer examination of the damaging fungus Serpula lacrymans as part of an international project led by Swansea University could also hold the key to protecting buildings from dry rot. Read more at…
Serpula genome project on MyCor Fungal Web Genomics
The other good news of this Bastille Day: our paper on the Serpula lacrymans genome is reported online July 14 in Science Express. The Domestic Dry Rot (Serpula lacrymans, Basidiomycete, Coniophoraceae) comprises two subgroups, S. lacrymans varshastensis, found in montane conifer forests in the Himalayan foothills, and S. lacrymans var lacrymans, cause of building dry rot, which diverged in historic time [Kauserud et al. (2007) Mol. Ecol.16: 3350-3360]. Read…
Breaking down cellulose without blasting lignin: “Dry rot” genome offers lessons for biofuel pretreatment
WALNUT CREEK, Calif.—Feared by realtors and homeowners alike, dry rot due to the fungus Serpula lacrymans causes millions of dollars worth of damage to homes and buildings around the world. This brown rot fungus’ capacity to break down the cellulose in wood led to its selection for sequencing by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)…
DOE JGI’s role in national quest for cellulosic biofuels in the New York Times
The rumen is like a huge bathtub, he said, holding about 50 large soda bottles’ worth of fluid redolent with bacteria. Relying on these symbiotic microbes, cows eat up to 150 pounds of grass a day, a food inedible to most animals, including humans. Hess was after those microbial secrets, and the placid heifer was…
Mycosphaerella genome project in Capital Press
Septoria typically infects young seedlings that have recently emerged, creating lesions, and spreading to the higher leaves. It can affect yield and quality, Goodwin said. Control methods are typically fungicide sprays, he noted. Igor Grigoriev, of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Joint Genome Institute in Walnut Creek, Calif., has been sequencing the genomes of other…
Wallaby Yields Insight Into Limiting Methane
Research published in the June 30 edition of Science Express features an analysis of the microbial content of the Tammar wallaby gut, which may inform strategies for diminishing greenhouse gas emissions from other ruminants. Selected as a sequencing target by the DOE JGI’s Community Sequencing Program (CSP) in 2007, scientists had became interested in these mini…