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    Designer DNA: JGI Helps Users Blaze New Biosynthetic Pathways
    In a special issue of the journal Synthetic Biology, JGI scientific users share how they’ve worked with the JGI DNA Synthesis Science Program and what they’ve discovered through their collaborations.

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    A genetic element that generates targeted mutations, called diversity-generating retroelements (DGRs), are found in viruses, as well as bacteria and archaea. Most DGRs found in viruses appear to be in their tail fibers. These tail fibers – signified in the cartoon by the blue virus’ downward pointing ‘arms’— allow the virus to attach to one cell type (red), but not the other (purple). DGRs mutate these ‘arms,’ giving the virus opportunities to switch to different prey, like the purple cell. (Courtesy of Blair Paul)
    A Natural Mechanism Can Turbocharge Viral Evolution
    A team has discovered that diversity generating retroelements (DGRs) are not only widespread, but also surprisingly active. In viruses, DGRs appear to generate diversity quickly, allowing these viruses to target new microbial prey.

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    Algae growing in a bioreactor. (Dennis Schroeder, NREL)
    Refining the Process of Identifying Algae Biotechnology Candidates
    Researchers combined expertise at the National Labs to screen, characterize, sequence and then analyze the genomes and multi-omics datasets for algae that can be used for large-scale production of biofuels and bioproducts.

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    This data image shows the monthly average sea surface temperature for May 2015. Between 2013 and 2016, a large mass of unusually warm ocean water--nicknamed the blob--dominated the North Pacific, indicated here by red, pink, and yellow colors signifying temperatures as much as three degrees Celsius (five degrees Fahrenheit) higher than average. Data are from the NASA Multi-scale Ultra-high Resolution Sea Surface Temperature (MUR SST) Analysis product. (Courtesy NASA Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive Center)
    When “The Blob” Made It Hotter Under the Water
    Researchers tracked the impact of a large-scale heatwave event in the ocean known as “The Blob” as part of an approved proposal through the Community Science Program.

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    A plantation of poplar trees. (David Gilbert)
    Genome Insider podcast: THE Bioenergy Tree
    The US Department of Energy’s favorite tree is poplar. In this episode, hear from ORNL scientists who have uncovered remarkable genetic secrets that bring us closer to making poplar an economical and sustainable source of energy and materials.

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    Ian Rambo, graduate student at UT-Austin, was a DOE Graduate Student Research Fellow at the JGI
    Virus-Microbe Interactions of Mud Island Mangroves
    Through the DOE Office of Science Graduate Student Research (SCGSR) program, Ian Rambo worked on part of his dissertation at the JGI. The chapter focuses on how viruses influence carbon cycling in coastal mangroves.

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    HPCwire Editor's Choice Award (logo crop) for Best Use of HPC in the Life Sciences
    JGI Part of Berkeley Lab Team Awarded Best Use of HPC in Life Sciences
    The HPCwire Editors Choice Award for Best Use of HPC in Life Sciences went to the Berkeley Lab team comprised of JGI and ExaBiome Project team, supported by the DOE Exascale Computing Project for MetaHipMer, an end-to-end genome assembler that supports “an unprecedented assembly of environmental microbiomes.”

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    With a common set of "baseline metadata," JGI users can more easily access public data sets. (Steve Wilson)
    A User-Centered Approach to Accessing JGI Data
    Reflecting a structural shift in data access, the JGI Data Portal offers a way for users to more easily access public data sets through a common set of metadata.

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    Phytozome portal collage
    A More Intuitive Phytozome Interface
    Phytozome v13 now hosts upwards of 250 plant genomes and provides users with the genome browsers, gene pages, search, BLAST and BioMart data warehouse interfaces they have come to rely on, with a more intuitive interface.

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    screencap from Amundson and Wilkins subsurface microbiome video
    Digging into Microbial Ecosystems Deep Underground
    JGI users and microbiome researchers at Colorado State University have many questions about the microbial communities deep underground, including the role viral infection may play in other natural ecosystems.

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    Yeast strains engineered for the biochemical conversion of glucose to value-added products are limited in chemical output due to growth and viability constraints. Cell extracts provide an alternative format for chemical synthesis in the absence of cell growth by isolating the soluble components of lysed cells. By separating the production of enzymes (during growth) and the biochemical production process (in cell-free reactions), this framework enables biosynthesis of diverse chemical products at volumetric productivities greater than the source strains. (Blake Rasor)
    Boosting Small Molecule Production in Super “Soup”
    Researchers supported through the Emerging Technologies Opportunity Program describe a two-pronged approach that starts with engineered yeast cells but then moves out of the cell structure into a cell-free system.

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    These bright green spots are fluorescently labelled bacteria from soil collected from the surface of plant roots. For reference, the scale bar at bottom right is 10 micrometers long. (Rhona Stuart)
    A Powerful Technique to Study Microbes, Now Easier
    In JGI's Genome Insider podcast: LLNL biologist Jennifer Pett-Ridge collaborated with JGI scientists through the Emerging Technologies Opportunity Program to semi-automate experiments that measure microbial activity in soil.

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    In their approved proposal, Frederick Colwell of Oregon State University and colleagues are interested in the microbial communities that live on Alaska’s glacially dominated Copper River Delta. They’re looking at how the microbes in these high latitude wetlands, such as the Copper River Delta wetland pond shown here, cycle carbon. (Courtesy of Rick Colwell)
    Monitoring Inter-Organism Interactions Within Ecosystems
    Many of the proposals approved through JGI's annual Community Science Program call focus on harnessing genomics to developing sustainable resources for biofuels and bioproducts.

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    Coloring the water, the algae Phaeocystis blooms off the side of the sampling vessel, Polarstern, in the temperate region of the North Atlantic. (Katrin Schmidt)
    Climate Change Threatens Base of Polar Oceans’ Bountiful Food Webs
    As warm-adapted microbes edge polewards, they’d oust resident tiny algae. It's a trend that threatens to destabilize the delicate marine food web and change the oceans as we know them.

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    Integrating JGI Capabilities for Exploring Earth’s Secondary Metabolome
    Natural Prodcast podcast: Nigel Mouncey
    JGI Director Nigel Mouncey has a vision to build out an integrative genomics approach to looking at the interactions of organisms and environments. He also sees secondary metabolism analysis and research as a driver for novel technologies that can serve all JGI users.

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Our Science
Home › Our Science › Science Programs & Platforms Leads › Environmental Genomics Group

Environmental Genomics Group

Research in the Eloe-Fadrosh group focuses on using genome-resolved metagenomic approaches to identify and characterize genomic information from uncultivated microbes and viruses. We develop computational approaches to sift through thousands of metagenomes for signatures of viruses and novel microbial lineages, and reconstruct metabolic properties encoded within those genomes. Our aim is to more fully capture microbial and viral diversity, leading to a better understanding of microbial communities and ecosystem function.  The Environmental Genomics group also hosts the Viral Genomics group.

Research Team

Emiley Eloe-Fadrosh Matthew Kellom Robin Rohwer Neha Varghese
Emiley Eloe-Fadrosh, PI Matthew Kellom, Microbiome Research Scientist Robin Rohwer, Postdoctoral Fellow Neha Varghese,
Staff Data Scientist
Dariia Vyshenska,
Postdoctoral Fellow
eaeloefadrosh@lbl.gov
(925) 296-5704
mkellom@lbl.gov Rohwer@lbl.gov njvarghese@lbl.gov dariiavyshenska@lbl.gov
More about Emiley. Matt is broadly interested in the interactions between microbial life and environment, and using metagenomics to study these complex natural systems. Microbial communities living in hard-to-reach places that are considered to be inhospitable to humans are of particular interest. Matt also supports various CSP and FICUS user projects for the Metagenome Program. Robin studies microbial ecology and evolution in a 20-year, 500-metagenome time series from Lake Mendota (WI, USA). By exploring ecological and evolutionary signals across a spectrum of phylogenetic resolutions, she is searching for unifying principles that describe changes in microbial communities over time. Neha’s key role is to design, benchmark, and apply bioinformatics software to enable analysis and interpretation of genomic and metagenomic data for JGI’s user community. She also provides support for user science and projects through implementation of advanced analysis pipelines and tools as well as development and implementation of microservices in conjunction with the IMG platform. Dariia’s research centers on developing a scalable framework for the analysis of DNA stable isotope probing metagenomics data, allowing culture-independent identification of microbial populations performing specific metabolic functions. Her second project is focused on how microbial metabolic pathways can be used to characterize and compare diverse microbial communities.

Selected Publications

  • Nayfach S et al. A Genomic Catalog of Earth’s Microbiomes. Nature Biotechnology. 2020 Nov 9. doi: 10.1038/s41587-020-0718-6.
  • Ladau, J. et al. (2019) Spatial, Temporal, and Phylogenetic Scales of Microbial Ecology. Trends Microbiol. 10.1016/j.tim.2019.03.003
  • Malmstrom, R. R. et al. (2019) Advancing Genome-Resolved Metagenomics beyond the Shotgun. mSystems 4(3). 10.1128/mSystems.00118-19
  • Eloe-Fadrosh, Emiley A. et al. (2016) Metagenomics uncovers gaps in amplicon-based detection of microbial diversity. Nature Microbiology , 15032. 10.1038/nmicrobiol.2015.32
  • Eloe-Fadrosh, E. A. et al. (2016) Global metagenomic survey reveals a new bacterial candidate phylum in geothermal springs. Nat Commun 7, 10476. 10.1038/ncomms10476
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