The abundance of microorganisms in the atmosphere has lead to the hypothesis that airborne cells play significant roles in atmospheric chemistry, the water cycle, and climate. Supporting this idea are several bacterial species known to serve as efficient ice nuclei based on an excreted protein that can initiate ice formation and participate in cloud formation…
Toward multi-gene pathway engineering in plants
Researchers have developed an exon orgenetic sequence that codes for protein synthesis and is derived from natural sequences found in plant genes. This exon technology allows for multi-parameter regulation of a gene of interest by any two promoters in plants. Two promoters, allowing the exon to perform what is known as “parallel promoter stacking”, can…
Continuing studies of Dothideomycetes fungi
Dothideomycete fungi are found in a wide range of environments and include both extremophiles and plant pathogens that pose a major threat to sustainable bioenergy production. One such fungus is Baudoinia compniacensis, which can survive temperatures over 50ºC after exposure to ethanol vapor. However, nothing is known about the genes induced by ethanol or how…
Moss-Cyanobacteria Interactions in Boreal Forest Ecosystems
As a global carbon sink, the health and productivity of this ecosystem is important to preventing future increases in carbon dioxide emissions.
Identifying Enzymes from Novel Anaerobic Gut Fungi
Biofuels derived from plant biomass avoid many of the economic and environmental problems that plague traditional energy sources. However, existing technologies are insufficient to allow for industrial-scale conversion of plant waste into simple sugars and resulting conversion into renewable fuels. Researchers expect to help mitigate this issue by studying how anaerobic gut fungi break down…
Fungal Compounds to Help Microbially Synthesize Biofuels
Terpenoids are one of five families of hydrocarbons produced by fungi that are of interest to bioenergy researchers either as biofuels or biofuel precursors. Terpenoids such as hydrogenated bisabolene have been suggested as a viable alternative to D2 and biodiesel fuels. These compounds hold promise as a renewable source of microbially synthesized biofuels. To remedy…
Further Studies in Poplar Rust Fungal Genomics
Rust fungi (Pucciniales) are among the most important pathogens of many plants and trees of agricultural and ecological importance including DOE JGI Plant Flagship Genomes such as soybean, sorghum and poplar. The fungi are also known to have the most complex lifecycles among fungi. Understanding the molecular mechanisms that control interactions between plants and rust…
Effects on mutations on Aspergillus genomes
Aspergilli fungi are widely used in the biotechnology industry, and are emerging as the best model systems for fungal comparative genomics. However, the evolution of Aspergilli is still understudied. The production of these bioenergy bioenzymes is regulated by general regulatory mechanisms of carbon catabolism, and Aspergillus species have become established model organisms for the study…
Expanding grass genome comparators
The panicoid clade of grasses form the dominant component of grassland ecosystems around the world. They include some of the most photosynthetically productive crops in the world and five species have been selected by the DOE JGI as “flagship genomes,” primarily based on the potential of the species to serve as biofuels crops: sorghum (Sorghum…
Fungal-bacterial symbioses with Populus
Bacteria and fungi are known to interact with plants and contribute to ecosystem health and productivity, defining the plant microbiome. Recent studies indicate that some fungal-bacterial symbioses may date back over 400 million years and may be important in driving the formation of soil and rhizosphere communities. This project focuses on a diversity of fungi…