Probing the secrets of plants at the genetic level is all the rage these days among scientists seeking to understand how plants evolved on Earth. One of those plants is selaginella, one of the first plants to develop a system of tubes that transport water and nutrients inside a plant. Read more or listen to…
Spikemoss Genome Offers New Paths for Biofuels Research–Bridges Plant Development Gap
WALNUT CREEK, Calif.— It’s not quite Christmas, but the DNA sequence of a small plant that resembles the seasonal conifers is providing biofuels researchers with information that could influence the development of candidate biofuel feedstock plants and offering botanists long-awaited insights into plant evolution. “When you burn coal, you’re burning Selaginella’s ancestors,” said Purdue University…
Selaginella genome project in GenomeWeb Daily News
By sequencing the genome of the spikemoss Selaginella moellendorffii and comparing it to several other sequenced plant genomes, researchers have identified genetic patterns that correspond to different stages of plant evolution. Read more at GenomeWeb Daily News
Poplar leaf rust genome project in GenomeWeb Daily News
By comparing the genomes to one another and to some previously sequenced fungal pathogens and symbionts, the researchers identified features in the rust fungi genomes that seem to coincide with their pathogenic lifestyles. For instance, they tracked down a slew of genes coding for so-called effectors — small, secreted proteins that help the fungi thwart…
Poplar leaf rust genome project on SeedQuest
Sequenced at the DOE JGI using the Sanger platform under the 2006 Community Sequencing Program, the 101-million base pair genome of Melampsora larici-populina, the first tree pathogen sequenced, was made publicly available in 2008. Poplar leaf rust outbreaks weaken poplar trees, a candidate bioenergy feedstock whose genome sequence was published by the DOE JGI in…
Formidable Fungal Force Counters Biofuel Plant Pathogens
Researchers compared rust fungi genomes to identify how these pathogens can invade their plant hosts and to control the damage they can cause.
Single cell sequencing in Genome Technology
Using a single-cell approach developed by Ramunas Stepanauskas at the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences in West Boothbay Harbor, Maine, a group of researchers aims to sequence 60 new marine bacterio-plankton in conjunction with the US Department of Energy’s Joint Genome Institute. That way, there will be better reference genomes available for researchers studying marine…
Comparative genomics of social amoebae
Found in soils worldwide, slime molds such as Dictyosteliumdiscoideumare perhaps best known by their behaviors in the presence or absence of food. When food is plentiful, the social amoeba behave as individuals, but when food is scarce, they come together to form multicellular “fruiting bodies” that look like a flower bud atop a single stalk…
JGI Science @ the Lesher on Walnut Creek Patch
Most of us don’t even think about the insides of cows, the genes of waterfleas or the behavioral genetics of pollinating bees, but the 250 expert researchers who sequence microbial species—and actually understand the results—also know how to translate heavy duty science into layman’s language. Read more on the Walnut Creek Patch
First analysis of Trichoderma species as biocontrol agents
Trichodermaatroviride and T. virens are filamentous fungi commonly found in the soil and are good at protecting crops such as beans, tomatoes, strawberries and cotton against a range of fungal pathogens. Their ability to do so could offer bioenergy crop growers an alternative to chemical pesticide treatment. Both were selected for sequencing by the DOE…