Graphic depicting the Halothermothrix orenii chromosome
WIKIMEDIA, MAVROMATIS ET AL., PLOS ONE, 4:E4192, 2017
In an effort led by US Department of Energy (DOE) scientists at the Joint Genome Institute (JGI), an international research team released 1,003 novel bacterial and archaeal reference genomes, doubling the volume of existing bacterial type strains and boosting their known microbial phylogenetic diversity by about 24 percent, according to a study published Monday (June 12) in Nature Biotechnology. The genomes represent “the largest single release of reference genomes to date,” the authors write in their report.
“We uncovered potentially important members of microbial communities previously lacking taxonomic identity due to absence of reference genomes,” write the authors.
The genomes were constructed from metagenomic data isolated from various sources, including the human body, plants, soil, seawater, and termite guts, according to a news release. The efforts were part of the Genomic Encyclopedia of Bacteria and Archaea Initiative (GEBA-I), an endeavor aimed at identifying undiscovered proteins and genes and improving upon scientists’ current ...
