“Increased to levels unprecedented” is how the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) described the rise of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide emissions in their report on the physical science basis of climate change in 2013. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the atmospheric concentration of methane, a greenhouse gas some 28…
Eucalyptus—A Global Tree for Fuel and Fiber
From antiseptic oils to the construction of didgeridoos, the traditional Australian Aboriginal wind instrument, the eucalyptus tree serves myriad purposes, accounting for its status as one of the world’s most widely planted hardwood trees. Its prodigious growth habit has caught the eyes of researchers seeking to harness and improve upon Eucalyptus’ potential for enhancing sustainable…
When a stop sign is not interpreted as “stop”
Microbes disprove long-held assumption that all organisms share a common vocabulary. The Science: Through single-cell genomics and metagenomics, researchers exploring the planet’s microbial diversity have found that not all organisms interpret a series of short genetic sequences to mean the same thing. The Impact: The ability to study microbes in the wild helps researchers realize…
More than just a hill of beans: Phaseolus genome lends insights into Nitrogen fixation
“It doesn’t take much to see that the problems of three little people doesn’t add up to a hill of beans in this crazy world,” Humphrey Bogart famously said in the movie Casablanca. For the farmers and breeders around the world growing the common bean, however, ensuring that there is an abundant supply of this…
Retracing early cultivation steps: Lessons from comparing citrus genomes
Citrus is the world’s most widely cultivated fruit crop. In the U.S. alone, the citrus crop was valued at over $3.1 billion in 2013. Originally domesticated in Southeast Asia thousands of years ago before spreading throughout Asia, Europe, and the Americas via trade, citrus is now under attack from citrus greening, an insidious emerging infectious…
Lessons from the permafrost microbiome
A review of studies to better understand effects of climate change on microbial activities. The Science: Researchers are harnessing strategies including metagenomics to learn more about the microbial communities in permafrost and their current and potential responses to climate change. The Impact: Researchers estimate that permafrost covers a quarter of the plant’s land area, and…
Seeding a salty agricultural future
Fungal genome offers insights into growing crops in salty environments. The Science: Researchers sequenced and analyzed the genome of an extremophilic fungus that has adapted to thrive in the Dead Sea. The Impact: The genome provides information on how the fungus can tolerate extremely salty conditions. As climate change continues to affect agricultural lands and…
A Glimpse into Nature’s Looking Glass—To Find the Genetic Code is Reassigned
In the Lewis Carroll classic, Through the Looking Glass, Humpty Dumpty states, “When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.” In turn, Alice (of Wonderland fame) says, “The question is, whether you can make words mean so many different things.” All organisms on Earth use a genetic code, which is…
Defining function from “genomic dark matter”
Functional annotation reveals novel biomass-degrading enzymes from microbial genomes. The Science: Functional annotation allowed researchers to identify biomass-degrading enzymes in the 35 percent of genes in a genome that are considered “genomic dark matter.” The Impact: Identifying 17 putative biomass-degrading cellulases from the content of more than 5,500 microbial genomes is of use to bioenergy…
Single species reveals a myriad of genomic variations
Single cell genomics reveals diversity of cyanobacteria subpopulations. The Science: Single cell genomics allowed researchers to examine the subpopulations of the marine microbe Prochlorococcus, affording a glimpse at “a new dimension of microdiversity.” The Impact: The cyanobacterial subpopulations were found to be distinct, comprised of “genomic backbones” made of highly conserved core gene alleles and…