The bacterium SAR324 is unusually cosmopolitan. In the ocean’s North Pacific Subtropical Gyre, microbes tend to stay localized at different depths. But SAR324 can be found throughout the water column, from the warm, well-lit surface, to the blue-lit twilight zone, to the continuous pressure of the dark abyss, 4000 m (2.5 miles) deep. Scientists have wondered, how can SAR324 exist in so many varied environments? Now, a recent study supported by JGI and has uncovered that SAR324 encompasses four subgroups, adapted to different oceanic depths and relying on different ways of living. Read more about the hidden diversity of SAR324 on the JGI website.
Tanja Woyke Appointed Division Deputy for JGI User Programs
Joint Genome Institute (JGI) Director Nigel Mouncey has announced that effective March 1 senior scientist Tanja Woyke is officially the Deputy for JGI User Programs. She had been serving in the position on an interim basis for the past nine months. Woyke will continue to lead the Microbial Program and will split her time equally between these important roles for JGI. JGI User Programs interact with scientists across the world who are interested in collaborating on projects relevant to DOE-related problems. The Microbial Program is one of JGI’s five science programs, and conducts high-impact science focused on terrestrial carbon cycling and plant-microbe interactions.
JGI Team Describes Host-Virus Dynamics In a Microbial Mat
Previous work on microbial mats had primarily relied on culturing virus and host pairs in the laboratory to study their interactions. In The ISME Journal, a team co-led by JGI postdoctoral researcher Mária Džunková used single-cell sequencing to sequence both a cell’s genome and detect accompanying viral sequences, which would suggest the virus had been infecting the cell. Read the full story on the JGI website.
JGI Scientists Pen Genome Watch Articles
Tanja Woyke and other JGI researchers made their debut writing for a column of the prestigious scientific research magazine Nature Reviews Microbiology last year — and there’s more to come in 2020. In 2018, Woyke received a message from Andrea Du Toit, senior editor for Nature Reviews Microbiology, with an unusual opportunity: would JGI researchers consider regularly writing for the magazine’s column Genome Watch? The column appears in six issues of the monthly magazine each year.
Du Toit invited JGI to write half of the 2019 Genome Watch articles as a way to expose readers to a broader genomics perspective. Woyke spread the word among her JGI colleagues, and they agreed, providing three articles for the journal with Du Toit as their editor. The partnership has proven so successful this year, JGI is providing another three Genome Watch articles. Go here to read the blog post on the JGI website.
JGI-Led Team Expands the Global Diversity of Large and Giant Viruses
In Nature, a team led by JGI researchers reported uncovering a broad diversity of large and giant viruses that belong to the nucleocytoplasmic large DNA viruses (NCLDV) supergroup. The expansion of the diversity for large and giant viruses offered the researchers insights into how they might interact with their hosts, and how those interactions may in turn impact the host communities and their roles in carbon and other nutrient cycles. Read more on the JGI website.
Was this page useful?
Send
