The Hydra genome was sequenced at the JCVI, and assembled independently by the JCVI and JGI. The genome is approximately one billion base pairs in size and contains approximately 20,000 protein coding genes. The team found clear evidence for conserved genome structure between the Hydra and other animals, like humans. This contrasts with organisms like…
Hydra genome project in PRNewswire
Researchers from the J. Craig Venter Institute, along with more than 70 other researchers from around the world, have sequenced and analyzed the genome of Hydra magnipapillata, a fresh water member of the cnidaria — stinging animals that include jellyfish, sea anemones and corals. The research, published in the March 14 edition of Nature, was…
Gene prediction algorithm PRODIGAL
With our years of experience in manually curating genomes for the Joint Genome Institute, we developed a new gene prediction algorithm called Prodigal (PROkaryotic DYnamic programming Gene-finding ALgorithm). With Prodigal, we focused specifically on the three goals of improved gene structure prediction, improved translation initiation site recognition, and reduced false positives. We compared the results…
Naegleria genome project on Medical News Today
Scientists have now sequenced the genome of a weird, single-celled organism called Naegleria gruberi that is telling biologists about that transition from prokaryotes, which function just fine with all their proteins floating around in a soup, to eukaryotes, which neatly compartmentalize those proteins? The sequence, produced by the Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute (JGI),…
Naegleria genome project on Daily Cal
This aspect of the organism could be particularly interesting to the medical field, according to Prochnik. Because the organism’s and human cells’ flagellate tails are exactly the same, the two can be related. “When flagellates go wrong it causes problems like blindness, kidney diseases, obesity and developmental defects,” he said. “So the more we learn…
Naegleria genome project on UC Newsroom
Scientists have now sequenced the genome of a weird, single-celled organism called Naegleria gruberi that is telling biologists about that transition from prokaryotes, which function just fine with all their proteins floating around in a soup, to eukaryotes, which neatly compartmentalize those proteins? The sequence, produced by the Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute (JGI),…
Naegleria genome project on KPCC Pasadena
“Naegleria‘s pretty amazing because it can make one of these structures entirely from scratch. And it does it really fast,” Fritz-Laylin says. “It can do it in an hour to an hour and a half.” She wanted to understand how that happens. And sure enough, there are clues in the organism’s genes. She and her…
Naegleria genome project on Boston’s WBUR
These days, when you want to see what makes an organism tick, you order up a scan of its genes. And as it happens, scientists at the Department of Energy’s Joint Genome Institute in Walnut Creek, Calif., were sequencing a bunch of organisms, and they had a little extra room in their DNA-reading machines. So…
Naegleria genome project on Bay Area PBS (KQED)
Step aside, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Here’s a story about an organism that dramatically transforms itself when it’s under stress. It turns from a lethargic amoeba into a sprightly, two-armed swimmer. This unlikely single-celled creature is named Naegleria gruberi. It lives in the dirt, under the eucalyptus trees, on the University of California, Berkeley…
Naegleria genome project on Bay Area’s ABC7 news
At UC Berkeley, there is new hope for some of mankind’s biggest maladies from research about the smallest of creatures. “What we have found is fundamental,” Simon Prochnik, a bioinformaticist at the DOE Joint Genome Institute, said. Prochnik studies the genetic make-up of single celled amoebas. He and a team of researchers have now sequenced…