In the last thirty years, in environments all over the world, scientists have discovered giants among viruses. Culturing studies have been key to understanding these viruses’ host range, morphological structures, and infection strategies. More recently, researchers have employed cultivation-independent approaches to discover thousands of new giant viruses, rapidly expanding the diversity of the Nucleocytoviricota phylum. A new review provides a perspective on giant virus diversity, and how sequencing and bioinformatics have sped up the study of giant viruses.
JGI Adds Actinobacteria Chapter in the Genomic Encyclopedia of Bacteria and Archaea
In Cell Genomics, an international consortium led by researchers at the Joint Genome Institute team generated 824 new Actinobacteria genomes, which were were combined with nearly 5,000 publicly available ones and 1,100 metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs) reconstructed from sequenced environmental samples in a previous study.
Biosciences Researchers Part of Genomic Analysis of Giant Bacteria Found in Guadeloupe Mangroves
In Science, a team led by Jean-Marie Volland, a scientist with joint appointments at the DOE Joint Genome Institute (JGI) and the Laboratory for Research in Complex Systems, and Silvina Gonzalez-Rizzo and Olivier Gros of the Université des Antilles, described the morphological and genomic features of a giant filamentous bacterium, along with its life cycle.
JGI Demonstrates the Power of One, Amplified
Continuing explorations into a remote hot spring, deep within the British Columbia backcountry, researchers from the University of Calgary and the JGI employed single-cell sequencing to assess the diversity within and between microbial populations. The work, published in The ISME Journal, showed the value of conducting large-scale single cell genomics by collecting nearly 500 single cells from a single low diversity hot spring sediment sample. Their work showed that single cell genomics can add significant value to the other commonly used culture-independent sequencing approaches including amplicon and metagenomic sequencing. Learn more here on the JGI website.
JGI Enables Time-series Study of ‘The Blob’s’ Impact
Enabled by the JGI’s Community Science Program, a team led by University of British Columbia researchers tracked the impact of a large-scale heatwave event in the ocean known as “The Blob.” The microbial communities in the ocean drive the biological pump that takes carbon from the atmosphere and keeps it in the deep ocean. With genomic samples collected before, during and after The Blob, the researchers developed a preliminary model of how marine microbial communities are affected by warming events. They recently shared their findings in Communications Biology. The work underscores the value of large-scale research collaborations and of conducting even more time-series studies.
Learn more here on the JGI website.
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