In the effort to curb climate change by reducing global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, thawing permafrost poses a critical challenge. These reservoirs of frozen organic matter embedded in Arctic soils are one of the major (~1.5 billion tons) stores of carbon on Earth. One of the abiding concerns regarding permafrost is that as global temperatures…
Ultra-small bacteria project in Huffington Post
“These newly described ultra-small bacteria are an example of a subset of the microbial life on earth that we know almost nothing about,” says Jill Banfield, a Senior Faculty Scientist in Berkeley Lab’s Earth Sciences Division and a UC Berkeley professor in the departments of Earth and Planetary Science and Environmental Science, Policy and Management….
Congressman DeSaulnier Visits JGI
On Friday, February 20, first-year Congressman Mark DeSaulnier, whose 11th District spans from Antioch in east Contra Costa County to Richmond in the west, visited the landmark energy and environmental genomics user facility at his District’s geographic center, the DOE Joint Genome Institute in Walnut Creek. The Representative and his staffer Pat Joyce met with…
March 4: DOE JGI-EMSL Collaborative Science Google+ Hangout
Have questions about or plan to submit a Letter of Intent to the DOE JGI-EMSL Collaborative Science Initiative? Now is your chance to learn more about these national scientific user facilities funded by the U.S. Department of Energy and the collaborative science capabilities they offer the global research community. The DOE Joint Genome Institute (JGI) and…
Mycorrhizal fungi project in ScienceNews
“Long before the fungi engaged in trade with their plant hosts, though, their fungal ancestors primarily were decomposers, breaking down wood from dead trees. So how did this mutually beneficial relationship with live plants evolve?” The ScienceNews article ran on February 23, 2015. Learn more about the DOE JGI’s role in understanding the symbiotic relationship…
Retracing the Roots of Fungal Symbioses
Understanding how plants and fungi developed symbiotic relationships. With apologies to the poet John Donne, and based on recent work from the U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute (DOE JGI), a DOE Office of Science user facility, it can be said that no plant is an island, entire of itself. Unseen by the human…
Exploring Uncultivable Microbes at AAAS
SESSION TITLE: Novel Technologies for Exploring the Uncultivated Microbial Majority WHEN: 1:00pm on Friday, February 13, 2015 WHERE: Room LL20C (San Jose Convention Center) Susannah Tringe and Tanja Woyke, the respective heads of our Metagenome and Microbial Programs, have organized a session at this year’s American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Meeting, which…
Complete Genomes from Single Cells Still Elusive
DOE JGI researchers describe the current challenges in single-cell genomics. The Science: DOE JGI researchers review the status of single-cell genomics, and how close scientists are to being able to reconstruct an individual cell’s genome. The Impact: As an alternative method of studying microbial communities, single-cell genomics allows researchers to link function to phylogeny without…
Enhancing Microbial Pathways for Biofuel Production
DOE JGI, JBEI researchers collaborate on improving terpene production in E. coli. Science: Researchers from the DOE JGI and the Joint Bioenergy Institute identified genes in an E. coli microbial metabolism pathway that could improve the production of terpenes. The Impact: Terpenes are high-energy compounds produced in microbes and plants that could be used for…
CAMI Hosts Community Challenge for Assessing Metagenomes
Current CAMI Schedule for Participants: March 27, 2015 “Challenge Part I” opens: Read data sets posted for assembly and read based profiling/binning May 8, 2015 Deadline for “Challenge Part I,” Assemblies May 9, 2015 “Challenge Part II” opens: Gold standard assemblies posted for contig-based profiling/binning May 27-29, 2015 1st CAMI Evaluation Meeting. Details: http://cami-challenge.org/evaluation_meeting June 19, 2015 Deadline…