Katherine Louie

DOE Joint Genome Institute

Science Programs

Secondary Affiliation: Environmental Genomics and Systems Biology

Comparative and Functional Genomics

Was this page useful?

Send

JGI-Enabled Research Finds Flagella in the Terrestrial Roots of Marine Bacteria

October 19, 2023

Scientists have discovered flagella in an unexpected place: hot spring-dwelling bacteria from the phylum Chloroflexota. Research shows that flagella were lost in other forms of Chloroflexota that adapted to marine environments hundreds of millions of years ago.

JGI Extracts the Secrets of Secondary Metabolites

August 23, 2022

Microbial secondary metabolites, those molecules not essential for growth yet essential for survival, may now be easier to characterize following a JGI proof-of-concept study in which researchers paired CRISPR and CRAGE technologies. CRAGE (developed by a JGI team led by Yasuo Yoshikuni) offers CRISPR a point of entry into microbes that it previously lacked. Then, by using CRISPR to knock out or activate genes, researchers at the JGI were able to monitor loss- and gain-of-function, with the analytical data showing peaks and valleys in secondary metabolites as genes are edited. The pairing proved to rapidly confirm enhanced production of 22 metabolites from six biosynthetic gene clusters. One of those was a metabolite from a previously uncharacterized biosynthetic gene cluster. Learn more on the JGI website.

About Biosciences

Divisions & User Facility

Resources