Projects

Functional genomics of moss-cyanobacteria interactions in boreal forest ecosystems

Lead Institution

J. Craig Venter Institute

Principal Investigator

Philip Weyman

Project type

FICUS Research

Boreal forests are important ecosystems involved in global carbon cycling. The nitrogen cycling in these ecosystems is largely determined by feather moss-associated cyanobacteria that fix the…

Development of novel approaches to target microbial drivers of C cycling in soil aggregates

Lead Institution

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Kirsten Hofmockel

Project type

FICUS Research

We propose to develop approaches that target metabolically active microorganisms and functions that drive carbon cycling in soils from bioenergy cropping systems. Albeit critically important, soil…

Mapping soil carbon from cradle to grave: using comparative transcriptomics, proteomics and metabolite analysis to identify the microbial blueprint for root-enhanced decomposition of organic matter.

Lead Institution

University of California, Berkeley

Principal Investigator

Mary Firestone

Project type

FICUS Research

In this JGI-EMSL project, we will investigate how living roots impact the functional capacity of the detritosphere (litter and surrounding soil) microbiome that is actively mediating decomposition…

Organelles promoting high level terpenoid biosynthesis in filamentous fungi.

Lead Institution

United States Department of Agriculture - Agricultural Research Service Cereal Disease Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Harold Kistler

Project type

FICUS Research

Terpenoid compounds are a promising source of renewable biofuels that have many favorable characteristics such as high energy content and compatibility with existing energy-use technologies. While…

FECB: A Functional Encyclopedia of Cyanobacteria - Building the knowledge framework for an enhanced understanding of carbon and nitrogen cycling

Lead Institution

University of California, Davis

Principal Investigator

Matthias Hess

Project type

FICUS Research

There has been a great interest by the Department of Energy (DOE) to increase the phylogenetic coverage of genome sequences from across the phyla archaea and bacteria – including cyanobacteria. The…

Genome-enabled Investigations of the Role of Secreted Proteins and Reactive Metabolites in Carbon Degradation by Pure and Mixed Ascomycete Fungal Communities

Lead Institution

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

Principal Investigator

Colleen Hansel

Project type

FICUS Research

The Eumycete fungi (primarily Basidiomycota and Ascomycota) are key organisms in the degradation of wood, plant and animal material. While ascomycetes are less capable of rapid wood decay than…

Organic N Turnover in Soil: An Overlooked Component of C Cycling

Lead Institution

Oregon State University

Principal Investigator

David Myrold

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

It is now generally accepted that most of the organic matter in soils consists of materials that have been processed by the microbial community. Indeed, "necromass"--the remains of dead…

State-of-the-Art Computational Investigations of Environmentally Relevant Uranyl Peroxide Compounds and Nanoparticles

Lead Institution

University of Manchester

Principal Investigator

Nikolas Kaltsoyannis

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

The linear dioxo U(VI) moiety [UO2]2+ (uranyl) is ubiquitous in the chemistry of uranium; indeed, approximately half the known compounds of uranium contain this moiety. A fascinating subset of these…

Towards a metabolic model of circadian clock control of metabolism in Neurospora crassa.

Lead Institution

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Principal Investigator

Jennifer Hurley

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Biofuel production using cellulases extracted from fungi has the potential to be a major resource to replace fossil fuels and regulating the synthesis of these and other enzymes is crucial for the…

The proteome of a day in the life of Chlamydomonas

Lead Institution

University of California, Berkeley

Principal Investigator

Sabeeha Merchant

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Nearly all organisms exhibit diurnal metabolic cycles. In photosynthetic organisms, light is a key input into metabolic cycles. Transcriptomics experiments in cyanobacteria, algae and plants have…

Histone dynamics during the life cycle of Chlamydomonas

Lead Institution

Donald Danforth Plant Science Center

Principal Investigator

James Umen

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Diurnal cycles are central drivers of gene expression in photosynthetic organisms including cyanobacteria, algae and land plants. The model unicellular green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii has…

Advanced Molecular Characterization of Solvo-Catalytic Lignin Disassembly

Lead Institution

Washington University in St. Louis

Principal Investigator

Marcus Foston

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Lignin obtained from lignocellulosic biomass is an abundant, renewable, low-cost resource whose carbon-rich, aromatic composition makes it ideal to displace some petroleum-based feedstocks as…

Understanding the Nucleation, Growth, and Immobilization of Metal Clusters Using First Principles Theoretical Calculations and Mass Spectrometry

Lead Institution

Virginia Commonwealth University

Principal Investigator

Jose Reveles Ramirez

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

The properties of clusters vary substantially with the addition or removal of single atoms. This size-dependent behavior enables tuning of the activity and selectivity of cluster-based catalysts with…

Rational Design of Solid-Electrolyte Interfaces for Biofuel Production and Energy Storage

Lead Institution

Universitat Rovira i Virgili

Principal Investigator

Josep Poblet

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Structure-activity relationships determined from molecular-level investigation of mesoscale assemblies of well-defined clusters are critical to the rational development of improved devices for…

A Multiomics, Systems-Based Approach to Quantify the Response of Microbially-Mediated Carbon Turnover to Climate Change Manipulation in a Northern Peatland Forest

Lead Institution

Florida State University

Principal Investigator

Rachel Wilson

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Peatlands store 1/3 of all soil carbon (C) and currently act as net C sinks sequestering C as a complex mixture of organic compounds. The anoxic, water-logged, cool conditions of boreal peatlands…

Epitaxial thin films as model battery electrodes - The reaction front and ionic diffusion

Lead Institution

University of Colorado at Boulder

Principal Investigator

Michael Toney

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Energy conversion and storage is of great importance to a sustainable environment and meeting our energy needs. However, fundamental scientific understanding of rechargeable batteries is far behind…

The Lignin Enigma: Turning the Corner

Lead Institution

Washington State University

Principal Investigator

Norman Lewis

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Lignins (Nature's second most abundant terrestrial plant substances) provide structural support for plants to stand upright, to conduct water/nutrients, and as barriers to opportunistic…

Connecting genomic capabilities to physiology, photosynthesis and carbon cycling

Lead Institution

Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute

Principal Investigator

Alexandra Worden

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

More than 50% of global primary production is performed by land plants and green algae. Of all algae green algae are the most closely related to land plants and therefore provide powerful single cell…

The Organic Surfactant Pool on Secondary Organic Aerosol Particles

Lead Institution

Northwestern University

Principal Investigator

Franz Geiger

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Secondary organic aerosol (SOA) particles particles rank among the least understood atmospheric constituents in the climate system. Key questions concern their poorly quantified roles in cloud…

A Molecular-to-Regional Scale Understanding of Secondary Organic Aerosol Formation

Lead Institution

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Jerome Fast

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Our hypothesis is that a better understanding of fast-reacting processes is needed to make a breakthrough in parameterizing secondary organic aerosols (SOA) for the next generation climate models. To…