Ostreococcus belongs to the Prasinophyceae, an early-diverging class within the green plant lineage, and is reported as a globally abundant picoeukaryotic group (tiny algae) throughout the oceanic euphotic zone (the top of the water column, where green plants live). The most striking feature of O. tauri and related species is their minimal cellular organization: a…
Why Sequence the California Mussel?
Sequencing the mussel Mytilus californianus will have direct impacts on multiple DOE missions. The fields of ecotoxicology and environmental remediation stand to benefit from their ability to sequester toxins. Mussels are frequently used as sentinel organisms for monitoring the accumulation of pollutants in marine ecosystems. The measurement of chemicals in mussel tissue provides an estimate…
Why Sequence Mycosphaerella fijiensis?
Mycosphaerella fijiensis, the causal agent of the devastating leaf streak disease (commonly called Black Sigatoka) in bananas, requires the highest annual fungicide application of all pathogens globally (more than $2.5 billion worth). This pathogen is of urgent importance, as banana production relies heavily on massive use of a fungicide that is under critical public review…
Why Sequence Cichlid Fish?
The sequencing of several Lake Malawi cichlid fish will contribute to major advances in our understanding of evolution in Lake Malawi cichlids. The lake is an evolutionary treasure trove in East Africa, home to more species of freshwater fish than all of Europe and North America combined. In part because cichlids are commonly used in…
Why Sequence Poplar Leaf Rust?
The Populus (poplar tree) genome has been publicly released by the JGI, and the genomes of its symbiotic fungal associates Laccaria bicolor and Glomus intraradices are near completion. As part of the development of a broader community-based Populus genomics resource, and as a means of conducting informative comparative genomics among fungi, JGI will be sequencing…
Why Sequence Catfish?
Catfish are a two-billion-dollar industry in the United States, representing 68% of all U.S. aquaculture production. Catfish have served as model species for comparative immunology, reproductive physiology, and toxicology among ectothermic vertebrates because of their unique characteristics. This project involves sequencing expressed sequence tags (ESTs) for two closely related catfish species. Channel catfish (Ictalurus punctatus)…
Why Sequence the Hydractinia Allorecognition Gene Complex?
Colonial animals typically display the capacity to discriminate between their own tissues and those of unrelated members of their own species, the recognition event culminating in either fusion or rejection. Such allorecognition systems have long been of interest to geneticists by virtue of the substantial allotypic diversity they display. The sequencing of the Hydractinia symbiolongicarpus…
Why Sequence Sea Squirt cDNA?
Ascidians are invertebrate chordates, which diverged from the vertebrate lineage near the root of the chordate phylogenetic tree. Their larvae have a tadpole structure that closely resembles lower vertebrate larvae. They are, however, composed of a very small number of cells (2600 for Ciona intestinalis), have a stereotyped development due to invariant cleavage patterns, and…
Why Sequence Campanulales Chloroplasts?
Something happened in the plant order Campanulales that fundamentally destabilized the chloroplast genome. Chloroplast gene order is highly conserved among virtually all land plants, and foreign DNA is not normally incorporated into the chloroplast genome. In the Campanulales, however, inversions and other genome rearrangements occur exceptionally often, and these are commonly associated with the insertion…
Why Sequence a Butterfly?
The Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) comprise more than 150,000 species, many of economic importance (e.g., as pollinators, as agricultural pests, and in silk production), and have characteristic biological properties that distinguish them from all other insects (e.g., females as the heterogametic sex, derived wing color patterns and color vision, and holocentric chromosomes). However, genomic resources…