Two members of the Biosciences Area, Eleanor A. Blakely and Krishna K. Niyogi, were among the five Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory-affiliated researchers elected as Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) this week. This honor is bestowed for distinguished and continuing achievements in advancing science to serve society.
Crop Yield Gets Big Boost with Modified Genes in Photosynthesis
Plant biologists have bumped up crop productivity by increasing the expression of genes that result in more efficient use of light in photosynthesis, a finding that could be used to help address the world’s future food needs. Scientists in the Molecular Biophysics & Integrated Bioimaging (MBIB) Division at Berkeley Lab, the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley), and the University of Illinois targeted three genes involved in a process plants use to protect themselves from damage when they get more light than they can safely use. By increasing the expression of those genes, the scientists saw increases of 14-20 percent in the productivity of modified tobacco plants in field experiments. MBIB Faculty Scientist Kris Niyogi, who is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator and a UC Berkeley professor of plant and microbial biology, teamed up with Stephen Long, a plant biology and crop sciences professor at Illinois, for the Science study. Read more at the Berkeley Lab News Center.
New Bacteria Groups, and Stunning Diversity, Discovered Underground
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and UC Berkeley researchers have uncovered new clues about the roles of subsurface microbes in globally important cycles. Jill Banfield, senior faculty scientist in the Earth & Environmental Systems Area and professor at UC Berkeley, led the research team that studied soil and water samples containing subsurface microbes collected at a Colorado River basin field site. DNA sequencing of these microbes was performed at the Joint Genome Institute (JGI), a DOE Office of Science User Facility.
As reported online October 24 in the journal Nature Communications, the scientists netted genomes from 80 percent of all known bacterial phyla, a remarkable degree of biological diversity at one location. They also discovered 47 new phylum level bacterial groups, naming many of them after influential microbiologists and other scientists, including ten in the Biosciences Area (with the form Candidatus Surnamebacteria). Phyla-level names have been proposed for Molecular Biophysics & Integrated Bioimaging Division’s Cheryl Kerfeld, Krishna Niyogi, and Jennifer Doudna; Environmental Genomics & Systems Biology’s Louise Glass, Kathleen Ryan, Steven Brenner, Mary Wildermuth, and Judy Wall; and the JGI’s John Vogel and Tanja Woyke. The researchers analyzed the metabolic interactions of these and other subsurface microbes to better understand their roles in ecosystem resilience. Read the full story at the Berkeley Lab News Center.
Nobel Prize Winner, World-Class Biophysicist to Join Biosciences
Chemistry Nobelist Eric Betzig and world-class biophysicist Na Ji will join Berkeley Lab and UC Berkeley in the summer of 2017. They will serve as faculty scientists in the Molecular Biophysics & Integrated Bioimaging Division of the Biosciences Area.
Let There Be (More) Light
Excess light energy that a plant can’t absorb needs to be dissipated to avoid damage and oxidative stress. Krishna Niyogi, a faculty scientist in Molecular Biophysics and Integrative Bioimaging and a UC Berkeley professor of plant and microbial biology, led the study that included researchers from Berkeley Lab, UC Berkeley, University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine and Colorado State University at Fort Collins. The scientists are studying ways to increase the amount of light that can be safely absorbed, potentially leading to more efficient photosynthesis and higher crop productivity. Read the Berkeley Lab Science Short.
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