One contribution that may inform biofuels research is reported in the July 9 issue of Science, where researchers led by the DOE Joint Genome Institute (JGI) and the Salk Institute presented the 138 million nucleotide genome of Volvox carteri, a multicellular alga that captures light energy through photosynthesis. The DOE is supporting research into the…
S. commune genome makes three biomass-degrading fungi characterized
Many sequencing projects at the DOE JGI focus on identifying enzymes in organisms such as fungi that can break down cellulose in plant mass to help bring down the cost of biofuel production. As DOE JGI Fungal Genomics Program head Igor Grigoriev noted, “When we go into a forest we don’t see layers of dead…
Schizophyllum commune project in R&D Mag
The DOE Joint Genome Institute (JGI) previously sequenced and published the genomes of two wood-decaying fungi. Now a team of researchers led by scientists from the DOE JGI and the University of Utrecht announce the analysis of a third such genome in a study published online July 11 in Nature Biotechnology. All told, DOE JGI…
Schizophyllum commune project on LabSpaces
“Schizophyllum commune is the second white rot fungus and third wood degrader we’ve sequenced. The DOE JGI sequenced the first white rot fungal genome — Phanerochaete chrysosporium — in 2004. Then last year we sequenced the first brown rot fungal genome – Postia placenta.” Postia was found to utilize a unique arsenal of small oxidizing…
Volvox carteri project on Biology News Net
Prochnik points to both Volvox and Chlamydomonas as experimentally tractable model organisms where the information will be widely used, even by researchers who are not necessarily interested in Volvox biology. “Having the Volvox genome is a fantastic resource for directing further research towards our target areas of interest. With this pair of algal genomes in…
Schizophyllum commune project on 7th Space
“The surprise we saw is how significantly larger is the variety of enzymes in S. commune that are involved in plant biomass degradation compared to P. chrysosporium,” Grigoriev said. “In fact, S. commune has among the most extensive enzymatic machinery for degrading cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin of the fungi we examined.” Read more in 7th…
Volvox carteri project on Genetics Times
“The fundamental developmental biology interest in studying the Volvocine algae is that a single cell ancestor has evolved multicellularity and complicated cellular processes in a short evolutionary period,” explained DOE JGI bioinformaticist and co-first author Simon Prochnik. What the team found, he said, is “an astonishing lack of innovation” in the Volvox genome when compared…
Volvox carteri project on SciCasts
The DOE said that the organization is currently supporting research into the complex mechanisms present in photosynthetic organisms to better understand how they convert sunlight to energy and how photosynthetic cells control their metabolic processes so that this information can inform the production of renewable biofuels. This research that may inform biofuels research was reported…
Schizophyllum commune project on redOrbit
“When we go into a forest we don’t see layers of dead branches because wood decay fungi take care of them,” said Igor Grigoriev, head of the DOE JGI’s Fungal Genomics Program and a senior author on the study. “So when we think about bioenergy and degrading biomass and converting that into biofuel, we would…
Volvox carteri project on CORDIS Wire
This is due the fact that within the green algal order Chlamydomonadales there are closely related uni- and multicellular species, such as the two-flagellated unicellular model alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii and its sister taxon Volvox carteri, the latter being made up of more than 2,000 cells and having a much more complex life cycle on top…