Genome Insider

Every fall, a mysterious green growth appears on farmers’ fields: a microbial community that might be quietly improving the soil. Penn State researchers Mary Ann Bruns and Terry Bell are digging in to understand how. 

We hope you enjoy this last episode of Season 1! Stay tuned for Season 2, coming in 2021.

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Can plants help humans attain a renewable energy future? Can they help lock away more carbon? Xiaohan Yang, a scientist at Oakridge National Laboratory, believes they can. And, what’s more, that using gene editing technology to conscientiously mix traits of different plant species will help us get there. 

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Life as we know it wouldn’t exist without cyanobacteria; they began oxygenating Earth over two billion years ago. A team of researchers set out to Yellowstone National Park to study how cyanobacteria are living, communally, in microbial mats. Along the way, they’ve encountered surprises, adopted new technologies, and made a few discoveries about the microbial mat denizens.  

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A mini-episode: JGI collaborator Pankaj Trivedi is harnessing microbiome science to make plants more resilient to drought. 

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As waters warm due to climate change, corals are in mortal peril. But corals comprise multiple organisms: a coral host, a photosynthetic microalgae, and a little-characterized microbiome. When warm waters stress corals but before they bleach, a coral’s microbes, including its photosynthetic partner, may be what helps them take the heat. 

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Despite their diminutive stature, “short plants” such as mosses could be uniquely powerful in helping scientists link plant genetic sequences to what they do. But sequencing the genome of one short plant — fire moss — has an unexpected hurdle: ginormous sex chromosomes. 

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Kelly Wrighton and her group at Colorado State University in Fort Collins have a massive undertaking: sequencing the world’s river microbiomes. And they’re using team science to do it. 

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Gary Trubl, virologist and postdoc at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, has more to share about bacteria-infecting viruses in the arctic. He’s researching how viruses influence the flow of carbon in thawing peatlands — and bioinformatics and isotopes are crucial to the quest. 

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• Submit a proposal to work with the JGI!

Gary Trubl, virologist and postdoc at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, has more to share about bacteria-infecting viruses in the arctic. He’s researching how viruses influence the flow of carbon in thawing peatlands — and bioinformatics and isotopes are crucial to the quest. 

• Find all episode transcripts on our website
• Submit a proposal to work with the JGI!

Alison Takemura tells you about the podcast, and Ed Hall, microbiologist at Colorado State University, talks about how this is a unique time in human history.

Genome Insider is brought to you by the U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute.

• Find all episode transcripts on our website
• Submit a proposal to work with the JGI!