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Content Tagged "agriculture"

DOE JGI partners Cornell on cassava project

Cassava, a rough and ready root crop that has long been the foundation of food security in Africa is finally getting the respect it deserves. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Department for International Development of the United Kingdom (DFID) are investing $25.2 million to improve the staple crop’s productivity and build human… [Read More]

Arabidopsis root microbiome project: release from University of Queensland

Led by the University of North Carolina and the US Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute, the research studied the microbiome in soil around the roots of more than 600 Arabidopsis thaliana plants. The team, which included The University of Queensland Professor Philip Hugenholtz, investigated how the microbiome helps shuttle nutrients and information into and out… [Read More]

Comparative genomics method to tag novel nitrogen-fixation genes

Nitrogen is crucial for plant growth but plants cannot harness it directly from the atmosphere. In the United States, legume crops such as soybeans and peas rely on nitrogen fertilizers to boost yields; in 2007, 13 million tons of industrially-produced fertilizers were applied. Soil bacteria such as Sinorhizobiummeliloti have a symbiotic relationship with plant hosts… [Read More]

An alternative surrogate for gene discovery in switchgrass

Selected for the DOE JGI 2007 Community Sequencing Program because of traits such as high yield, perennial growth and low nutrient requirements, switchgrass is a promising candidate bioenergy crop that could be used to develop cellulosic biofuels. One of the challenges with sequencing switchgrass is the fact that it is a polyploid, containing multiple, full… [Read More]

Cotton project in the Delta Farm Press

An international consortium, led by Professor Andrew Paterson of the University of Georgia, has made publicly available the first ‘gold-standard’ genome sequence for cotton. Cotton was among the first plants studied at the molecular level, and the sequence obtained by Paterson and his team is the culmination of a 20-plus year effort in the analysis… [Read More]

Boosting knowledge of nitrogen-fixing bacteria

No plant is an island; interactions with complex microbial communities both above the ground and below the ground shape the plant’s growth rates and overall health. Understanding these plant-microbe interactions can lead to improvements in plant health and productivity and carbon sequestration, which can be applied toward DOE missions in bioenergy and biogeochemistry. Dark-field photo… [Read More]

Spider mite genome project in CBC News

“They can change the repertoire [of genes] that they’re using in order to be able to feed on hosts that they would not be adapted to,” said Miodrag Grbic, a University of Western Ontario biologist, who led an international project to sequence the spider mite’s genome. The results were published this week in the journal… [Read More]

Spider mite genome project in GenomeWeb

The spider mite, named for its ability to spin webs, belongs to an arthropod sub-group comprised of so-called chelicerates and is capable of consuming more than 1,100 plant species. This trait, coupled with its ability to develop resistance to most commonly used pesticides, have made it a potent pest, known for damaging ornamental plants and… [Read More]

Dry rot (Serpula) genome project on eNews Park Forest

In 2007 the US Department of Energy’s Joint Genome Institute sequenced Serpula lacrymans in order to see if the way it breaks down cellulose in wood could be harnessed for biofuel production. An international team analysing the genome have found the enzyme mechanisms that could explain the aggressive decay caused by this form of dry… [Read More]

Cassava project in Bloomberg View

Over the past few years, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Joint Genome Institute has taken up the challenge to sequence additional starches that could make a significant difference in developing nations where corn and soybean are less important than such staples as foxtail millet, sorghum and cassava. Such crops, if engineered to be more nutritious,… [Read More]