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The mutualistic relationship between tree roots and ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungi has been shaping forest ecosystems since their inception. ECM fungi are key players supporting the growth, health and stress tolerance of forest trees globally, and help boost the productivity of bioenergy feedstock trees. To learn more about what characteristics are dominant in the most common ECM fungus Cenococcum geophilum, a team including researchers at the DOE Joint Genome Institute (JGI) compared its genome with the genomes of two close relatives, neither of which are ECM fungi. They found specific adaptations in the Cenococcum genome that could help their hosts be more resistant to drought stress, a finding that could be useful in developing more plant feedstocks for bioenergy amidst the changing climate. The study was published date September 2 in Nature Communications. Read more at JGI News.

The Biosciences Area partnered with Biotech Partners (BP) this summer by providing internships to 13 high school students. The mission of the non-profit Biotech Partners is to educate underserved youth in the Bay Area with personal, academic and professional development experiences that increase participation in higher education and access to fulfilling science careers. The Biotech … Read more »

“We have increased the number of viral sequences by 50x, and 99 percent of the virus families identified are not closely related to any previously sequenced virus. This provides an enormous amount of new data that would be studied in more detail in the years to come. We have more than doubled the number of microbial phyla that serve as hosts to viruses, and have created the first global viral distribution map. The amount of analysis and discoveries that we anticipate will follow this dataset cannot be overstated.”

Although the number of viruses is estimated to be at least two orders of magnitude more than the microbial cells on the planet, there are currently less than 2,200 sequenced DNA virus genomes, compared to the approximately 50,000 bacterial genomes, in sequence databases. In a study published online August 17, 2016 in Nature, DOE JGI researchers utilized the largest collection of assembled metagenomic datasets from around the world to uncover over 125,000 partial and complete viral genomes, the majority of them infecting microbes. This single effort increases the number of known viral genes by a factor of 16, and provides researchers with a unique resource of viral sequence information. Read more on the DOE JGI website.

“Obtaining a complete genome of a microbe that is industrially important greatly stimulates research in the area…. We can expect an explosive interest in yeast biology in the coming years.”

To help boost the use of a wider range of yeasts and to explore the use of genes and pathways encoded in their genomes, a team led by DOE JGI researchers conducted a comparative genomic analysis of 29 yeasts, including 16 whose genomes were newly sequenced and annotated. In the study published the week of August 15, 2016 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), the team mapped various metabolic pathways to yeast growth profiles. Read more on the DOE JGI website.

“[H]aving access to the capabilities at the DOE JGI and EMSL ‘proved to be a powerful tool in exploring the molecular mechanisms of carbon degradation by soil microbes.’”

In a Plos ONE study, a team led by researchers at Harvard University and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) conducted a comparative analysis of the secretomes of four recently-isolated and sequenced filamentous Ascomycete fungi to learn more about the variety of pathways they deploy to break down carbon compounds. The team’s study was made possible by a partnership between the two national user facilities called Facilities Integrating Collaborations for User Science or FICUS. The partnership allows scientists around the world to draw on capabilities at both SC user facilities to get a more complete understanding of fundamental scientific questions. Read more on the DOE JGI website.