US Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute announces new genome sequencing projects
July 3rd, 2008 | by admin |
WALNUT CREEK, CAIn the continuing effort to tap the vast, unexplored reaches of the earth’s microbial and plant domains for bioenergy and environmental applications, the DOE Joint Genome Institute (DOE JGI) has announced its latest portfolio of DNA sequencing projects that it will undertake in the coming year. The 44 projects, culled from nearly 150 proposals received through the Community Sequencing Program (CSP), represent over 60 billion nucleotides of data to be generated through this biodiversity sampling campaignroughly the equivalent of 20 human genomes.
“The scientific and technological advances enabled by the information that we generate from these selections promise to take us faster and further down the path toward clean, renewable transportation fuels while affording us a more comprehensive understanding of the global carbon cycle,” said Eddy Rubin, DOE JGI Director. “The range of projects spans important terrestrial contributors to biomass production in the Loblolly pinethe cornerstone of the U.S. forest products industryto phytoplankton, barely visible to the naked eye, but no less important to the massive generation of fixed carbon in our marine ecosystems.”
With new sequencing strategies coming on line at DOE JGI’s Production Genomics Facility in Walnut Creek, Calif., Rubin said that the once daunting genome size of the Loblolly pine (Pinus taeda)over 21 billion basesis now becoming tractable. Loblolly pine is the most commonly planted tree species in America accounting for about 75 percent of all seedlings planted each year.
“Its ability to efficiently convert CO2 into biomass and its widespread use as a plantation tree have also made Loblolly a cost-effective feedstock for cellulosic biofuel production and a promising tool in efforts to curb greenhouse gas levels through carbon sequestration,” said Rubin. Because of the pine’s enormous genome, the project will begin with a targeted effort to understand the struContact: David Gilbert
degilbert@lbl.gov
925-296-5643
DOE/Joint Genome InstituteSource:Eurekalertcture of the pine genome. Led by Daniel Peterson of Mississippi State University, the project is intended to zero in on genes that can be used for molecular breeding programs to improve Loblolly as a biomass feedstock, carbon sequestration tool, and source of renewable, high-quality raw materials for lumber and pulp fiber.
The CSP selections range from these tall pines to not-so-sizable aquatic plants in duckweedthe smallest, fastest growing, and simplest of flowering plants. Greater Duckweed, Spirodela polyrhiza, is still relatively small at less than 10 millimeters. Nevertheless, its utility is manifold: as a biotech protein factory, toxicity testing organism, wastewater remediator, high-protein animal feed, carbon cycling player, as well as basic research and evolutionary model system.
“These plants produce biomass faster than any other flowering plant, and their carbohydrate content is readily converted to fermentable sugars by using commercially available enzymes developed for corn-based ethanol production,” said Rubin. “Moreover, duckweed relates to all three of DOE JGI’s mission areas: bioenergy, bioremediation, and global carbon cycling.”Propagated on agricultural and municipal wastewater, Spirodela species efficiently extract excess nitrogen and phosphate pollutants. Duckweed growth on ponds effectively reduces algal growth (by shading), coliform bacteria counts, suspended solids, evaporation, biological oxygen demand, and mosquito larvae while maintaining pH, concentrating heavy metals, sequestering or degrading halogenated organic and phenolic compounds, and encouraging the growth of aquatic animals such as frogs and fowl. This project, submitted by Todd Michael of the Waksman Institute of Microbiology at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, unites the efforts of six institutions.The DOE JGI has selected several metagenomes to sequencecomplex microbial communities that are isolated directly from the environment or resideContact: David Gilbert
degilbert@lbl.gov
925-296-5643
DOE/Joint Genome InstituteSource:Eurekalert
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