Press Releases
September 8, 2008
DOE JGI Extends the Capabilities of the Integrated Microbial Genome (IMG) System, Updates the IMG/M Metagenome System, Launches Education Site. The U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute (DOE JGI) has extended the capabilities of the Integrated Microbial Genomes (IMG) data management system, updated the content of the IMG/M metagenome data management and analysis system, and has launched its educational companion site, IMG/EDU.
August 21, 2008
Genome of Simplest Animal Reveals Ancient Lineage, Confounding Array of Complex Capabilities. As Aesop said, appearances are deceiving—even in life’s tiniest critters. From first detection in the 1880s, clinging to the sides of an aquarium, to its recent characterization by the U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute (DOE JGI), a simple and primitive animal, Trichoplax adhaerens, appears to harbor a far more complex suite of capabilities than meets the eye. The findings, reported in the August 21 online edition of the journal Nature, establish a group of organisms as a branching point of animal evolution and identify sets of genes, or a “parts list,” employed by organisms that have evolved along particular branches.
August 18, 2008
Analysis of Lake Washington Microbes Shows the Power of Metagenomic Approaches. Today’s powerful sequencing machines can rapidly read the genomes of entire communities of microbes, but the challenge is to extract meaningful information from the jumbled reams of data. In a paper appearing in Nature Biotechnology August 17, a collaboration headed by researchers at the University of Washington and the U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute (DOE JGI) describes a novel approach for extracting single genomes and discerning specific microbial capabilities from mixed community (“metagenomic”) sequence data.
August 13, 2008
DOE JGI Director Eddy Rubin Highlights the Genomics of Plant-based Biofuels in the Journal Nature. Genomics is accelerating improvements for converting plant biomass into biofuel—as an alternative to fossil fuel for the nation’s transportation needs, reports Eddy Rubin, Director of the U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute (DOE JGI), in the August 14 edition of the journal Nature.
July 2, 2008
Pine Tree, Boat-Boring Bivalve “Bugs”, Duck Weed, Oil-Producing Microalgae, Stinkbird Gut, 40 Others Top DOE Joint Genome Institute 2009 Genome Sequencing Targets. In the continuing effort to tap the vast, unexplored reaches of the earth’s microbial and plant domains for bioenergy and environmental applications, the DOE Joint Genome Institute (DOE JGI) has announced its latest portfolio of DNA sequencing projects that it will undertake in the coming year.
May 4, 2008
Lean and Mean Biomass-Degrading Fungus Reveals Targeted Capabilities for Improved Biofuel Production. The genome analysis of a champion biomass-degrading fungus has revealed a surprisingly minimal repertoire of genes that it employs to break down plant cell walls, highlighting opportunities for further improvements in enzymes customized for biofuels production.
March 5, 2008
Mechanisms of Plant-Fungi Symbiosis Characterized by DOE Joint Genome Institute, Collaborators. Plants gained their ancestral toehold on dry land with considerable help from their fungal friends. Now, millennia later, that partnership is being exploited as a strategy to bolster biomass production for next-generation biofuels.
February 7, 2008
DOE JGI Releases a New Version of its Metagenome Data Management & Analysis System. Targeting its ever-expanding user community, the U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute (DOE JGI) has released an upgraded version of the IMG/M metagenome data management and analysis system.
January 17, 2008
DOE JGI Releases Soybean Genome Assembly. A preliminary assembly and annotation of the soybean genome, Glycine max, has been made available by the U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute (DOE JGI), to the greater scientific community to enable bioenergy research.
December 13, 2007
DOE JGI Community Sequencing Program Delivers First Moss Genome. Messages from nearly a half-billion years ago, conveyed via the inventory of genes sequenced from a present-day moss, provide clues about the earliest colonization of dry land by plants.
December 4, 2007
Latest Integrated Microbial Genomes (IMG) Data Management System Update Release.
Version 2.4 of the Integrated Microbial Genomes (IMG) data management system, a resource provided to the scientific community for microbial genome data analysis, has now been released.
November 21, 2007
DOE JGI Plumbs Termite Guts to Yield Novel Enzymes for Better Biofuel Production.
Termites -- notorious for their voracious appetite for wood, rendering houses to dust and causing billions of dollars in damage per year -- may provide the biochemical means to a greener biofuel future.
November 1, 2007
DOE Joint Genome Institute’s Pennacchio Wins Presidential Early Career Award. Len Pennacchio, Genetic Analysis Program Head at the U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute (JGI) and senior staff scientist in the Genomics Division of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, is among this year’s recipients of The Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE).
October 18, 2007
Massive Reanalysis of Genome Data Solves Case of the Lethal Genes. [A JGI] survey identified genes that kill the bacteria employed in the sequencing process and throw a microbial wrench in the works. It also offers a possible strategy for the discovery of new antibiotics.
October 11, 2007
Green Alga Genome Project Catalogs Carbon Capture Machinery and Reveals Identity as Ancient Cousin of Land Plants and Animals. The genome analysis of a tiny green alga has uncovered hundreds of genes that are uniquely associated with carbon dioxide capture and generation of biomass.
September 4, 2007
Upgraded Integrated Microbial Genomes (IMG) Data Management System Released by DOE JGI to Eager User Community. A powerful set of computational tools established to ease the visualization and exploration of genomes flooding the public domain is now available in IMG Version 2.3
June 25, 2007
DOE Joint Genome Institute Secures Long-Term Lease on Production Genomics Facility. The U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute (DOE JGI) has secured a five-year extension on its lease with an option for an additional five years.
June 20, 2007
DOE JGI
Upgrades its Microbial Genome Analysis System. Rising to accommodate the scientific community’s interest in harnessing the potential of the microbial world, the U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute (DOE JGI) has made Version 2.2 of the Integrated Microbial Genomes (IMG) data management system available to the public.
June 8, 2007
DOE JGI Announces 2008 Genome Sequencing Targets. Toward the goal of harnessing the power of nature through DNA sequencing, the DOE Joint Genome Institute (DOE JGI) has announced the latest Community Sequencing Program (CSP) portfolio.
May 14, 2007
DOE JGI Sets 'Gold Standard' for Metagenomic Data Analysis. The field of metagenomics is still in its infancy--the equivalent of the early days of the California Gold Rush, with labs vying to stake their claim. Amidst the prospecting, the call has been issued for methods to separate fool's gold from the real nuggets. Such a gold standard has now been provided through work led by DOE JGI.
