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Content Tagged "carbon cycle"

Fungal genomics and coal formation in BioBased Digest

In Massachusetts, a group of 70 researchers led by David S. Hibbett of Clark University, in Worcester, Mass. and Igor V. Grigoriev of the Department of Energy’s Joint Genome Institute comparing the genomes of 31 fungi to determine how white rot fungi breaks down lignin and could be a major breakthrough in cellulosic ethanol technology. Read… [Read More]

Linking white rot fungi and the Carboniferous period in Scientific American

Now a new genomic analysis suggests why Earth significantly slowed its coal-making processes roughly 300 million years ago—mushrooms evolved the ability to break down lignin. “These white rot fungi are major decomposers of wood and the only organism that achieves substantial degradation of lignin,” explains mycologist David Hibbett of Clark University in Massachusetts, who led the research… [Read More]

Lessons from the adaptive strategies of a fungal pathogen

  by  ressaure Coniferous forests in Europe and North America have suffered several hundred million dollars in damages annually from the fungal pathogen Heterobasidion annosum. Aside from the economic losses, scientists are concerned by the white rot fungus that not only breaks down the wood for nutrients, but also releases the carbon dioxide trapped in the… [Read More]

Effects of symbiosis on a fungal transcriptome

The soils of the boreal forests in the northern latitudes are estimated to store more than three times the amount of carbon contained in the atmosphere or in plant life on land. Recent studies suggest the relationship between fungi on the forest floor, plants and the microbial communities at the plant roots (or rhizosphere) plays… [Read More]

White rot fungal genomics analysis on EcoSeed

Scientists at the Energy Department’s Joint Genome Institute are comparing the genetic structure of two strains of white rot fungi in order to develop better enzymes for biofuel production.White rot fungi digest moist wood, causing it to rot and decay. These fungi possess natural enzymes that break down the cellulose, hemicelluloses and lignin of plant… [Read More]

Permafrost study referenced in ScienceNews

In Nature in December, a team of researchers at the Department of Energy’s Joint Genome Institute in Walnut Creek, Calif., and colleagues reported one such microbe’s draft genome — put together from DNA acquired from the semifrozen dirt in an Alaskan black spruce forest. The Alaskan microbe carries genes tuned to transform organic matter into methane, a finding that… [Read More]

1000 Fungal Genomes project in The Daily Barometer

Joey Spatafora, an associate professor at Oregon State University, is leading an international project to sequence the genomes of a thousand fungi, a project aptly named 1000 fungal genomes.    “It’s a really, really exciting time in fungal biology because we can sequence fungal genomes more easily than we could ten years ago,” Spatafora said. The Daily Barometer [Read More]

Cyanobacteria shed light on carboxysome complexity

Found in temperate and tropical oceans, Prochlorococcus cyanobacteria are considered the world’s most abundant photosynthetic organisms, able to convert sunlight to energy at depths of 200 meters. Despite their size, they are estimated to contribute up to half of the marine biological carbon sequestration. Prochlorococcusis a unicellular cyanobacterium that dominates the temperate and tropical oceans. … [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]

DOE JGI research featured in io9

Last month I was lucky enough to visit one of the biggest genomics labs in the world. At the Joint Genome Institute (JGI) in Walnut Creek, CA, huge rooms full of genome sequencing machines work 24/7 to crunch the codes that create life. And the research here, funded by the US Department of Energy, has… [Read More]