News Releases
July 7, 2009
Exploring Standards to Advance Microbial Genomics. Microbes contribute to manifold human endeavors ranging from bioenergy to agriculture to medicine. Moreover, they make the Earth’s biogeochemical cycles go round, a prerequisite for all life on the planet.
June 29, 2009
Biofuel-Producing Bacteria, Insect Gut Microbes, ~ 70 other Projects Fill DOE Joint Genome Institute 2010 Pipeline. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Joint Genome Institute (JGI) has selected 71 new genomic sequencing projects for its 2010 Community Sequencing Program (CSP)—a targeted sampling of the planet’s biodiversity—to be characterized for bioenergy, climate, and environmental applications.
May 28, 2009
DOE JGI Releases Expanded Version of Phytozome.net:
Clearinghouse for Comparative Plant Genomics Data. An enhanced version of Phytozome.net, a web portal for comparative plant genomics geared to advance biofuel, food, feed, and fiber research, has been released by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Joint Genome Institute (JGI).
May 18, 2009
IMG ER Goes Primetime: Provides Expert-Driven QC for Microbial Genome Information. After a genome is sequenced and automatically annotated, researchers often manually review the predicted genes and their functions in order to improve accuracy and coverage across the vast genetic code of the particular target organism or community of organisms. These annotations drive the publication of high-profile science relevant to advancing bioenergy research and our understanding of biogeochemistry—the biological, chemical, physical, and geological processes that regulate our environment.
April 21, 2009
DNA of Uncultured Organisms Sequenced Using
Novel Single-Cell Approach. Scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Joint Genome Institute (JGI) and the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences have assembled high quality, contamination-free draft genomes of uncultured biodegrading microorganisms using a novel single cell genome sequencing approach. This proof of principle study, published in the April 23 edition of the journal PLoS One, offers researchers a new method to access and decipher the information embedded in genomes of interest with only minute quantities of DNA.
April 9, 2009
Genes from Tiny Algae Shed Light on Big Role Managing Carbon in World’s Oceans & Coping with Environmental Change. Scientists from two-dozen research organizations led by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Joint Genome Institute (JGI) and the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) have decoded genomes of two algal strains, highlighting the genes enabling them to capture carbon and maintain its delicate balance in the oceans.
February 12, 2009
Next Gen Sequencing Technology Pinpoint "On-Off Switches" in Genomes. Scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Joint Genome Institute (JGI), Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and the University of California, San Diego have developed a set of molecular tools that provide important insight into the complex genomes of multicellular organisms. The strategy promises to clarify the longstanding mystery of the role played by vast stretches of DNA sequence that do not code for the functional units—genes—that nevertheless may have a powerful regulatory influence.
February 5, 2009
Rot's Unique Wood Degrading Machinery to be Harnessed for Better Biofuels Production. An international team led by scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Joint Genome Institute (JGI) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service, Forest Products Laboratory (FPL) have translated the genetic code that explains the complex biochemical machinery making brown-rot fungi uniquely destructive to wood.
January 28, 2009
Scientists Publish Complete Genetic Blueprint of Key Biofuels Crop. Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Joint Genome Institute (JGI) and several partner institutions have published the sequence and analysis of the complete genome of sorghum, a major food and fodder plant with high potential as a bioenergy crop. The genome data will aid scientists in optimizing sorghum and other crops not only for food and fodder use, but also for biofuels production. The comparative analysis of the sorghum genome appears in the January 29 edition of the journal Nature.
December 8, 2008
DOE Joint Genome Institute Completes Soybean Genome—Data Released to Advance Biofuel, Food, & Feed Research. The U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute (DOE JGI) has released a complete draft assembly of the soybean (Glycine max) genetic code, making it widely available to the research community to advance new breeding strategies for one of the world’s most valuable plant commodities. Soybean not only accounts for 70 percent of the world’s edible protein, but also is an emerging feedstock for biodiesel production. Soybean is second only to corn as an agricultural commodity and is the leading U.S. agricultural export.
November 25, 2008
DOE JGI Issues Call for Genome Sequencing Proposals. The U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute (DOE JGI), through its Community Sequencing Program (CSP), is soliciting proposals related to the DOE missions of bioenergy, global carbon cycling and biogeochemical processes influencing contaminant transport. Targets include bacterial and archaeal isolates, large-scale eukaryotic or bacterial resequencing efforts that exploit next-generation sequencing technologies, eukaryotic reference genomes, and environmental microbial genomes (metagenomes). Letters of intent will be accepted beginning December 15, 2008 and are due January 30, 2009. For more details, see: http://www.jgi.doe.gov/CSP/user_guide/index.html
October 15, 2008
Diatom Genome Helps Explain Their Great Diversity and Success in Trapping Excess Carbon in Oceans. Diatoms, mighty microscopic algae, have profound influence on climate, producing 20 percent of the oxygen we breathe by capturing atmospheric carbon and in so doing, countering the greenhouse effect.
October 9, 2008
Bold traveler's journey toward the center of the Earth. The first ecosystem ever found having only a single biological species has been discovered 2.8 kilometers (1.74 miles) beneath the surface of the earth in the Mponeng gold mine near Johannesburg, South Africa. There the rod-shaped bacterium Desulforudis audaxviator exists in complete isolation, total darkness, a lack of oxygen, and 60-degree-Celsius heat (140 degrees Fahrenheit).
September 24, 2008
After the First Decade of Metagenomics--Adolescent Growth Spurt Anticipated. Mostly hidden from the scrutiny of the naked eye, microbes have been said to run the world. The challenge is how best to characterize them given that less than one percent of the estimated hundreds of millions of microbial species can be cultured in the laboratory.
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.
