15 organisms sequenced in a month in Joint Genome Institute’s microbial marathon

The superior quality draft sequences of 15 bacterial genomes were generated throughout October at the Joint Genome Institute or JGI of the United States Department of Energy in Walnut Creek, California. They sequenced more than one genome for each 1½ working day.

The JGI is an association made up of the Los Alamos National Laboratories, among others. It has expanded to have partnerships with institutions like Brookhaven National Laboratories.

Together with the University of California at Berkeley’s Alexander Purcell, JGI researchers sequenced a couple of X. fastidiosa strains which cause oleander leaf scorch and almond leaf scorch.

JGI researchers teamed with the California Institute of Technology’s Mel Simon on M. magnetotacticum, that Joseph Kirschvink, a Caltech geobiologist, considers the greatest contender for the predecessor of every mechanism of biomineralization on Earth.

The decision to sequence over 12 assorted organisms in a month came following JGI’s completion of working-draft sequences of chromosomes five, 16, and 19 of humans in April and, only three weeks afterwards, finished the supergerm Enterococcus faecium’s working draft in a day.

Data generated at JGI is instantly forwarded to the annotation pipeline of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, wherein the sequence is swiftly searched for genes and further features.

By utilising high-quality genomic technologies and computational systems and by leveraging the DOE's national laboratory system’s singular capabilities, the JGI is finding and distinguishing primary principles of living systems’ evolutions, producing fresh understanding which could be used to address major missions of DOE such as human health.