Genome

Foundation Research Will Help Improve Soybeans and Other Legumes

WASHINGTON, Jan. 13, 2010 -- U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists are part of a team that has sequenced the majority of the soybean genome, providing an unprecedented look into how this important legume crop converts four critical ingredients--sunlight, water, carbon dioxide and nitrogen--into protein and oil, the basic building blocks for many consumer products. The research team from 18 federal, state, public and private organizations published their research today in the journal Nature.    » read more »

Sequence will Spur Advancements in Swine Production and Human Medicine

WASHINGTON, Nov. 2, 2009 - An international team of scientists, funded with a $10 million grant from the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), has completed the first draft of the genome of a domesticated pig. This first draft sequence will spur advancements in swine production and human medicine.

"Understanding the swine genome will lead to health advancements in the swine population and accelerate the development of vaccinations for pigs," said Roger Beachy, NIFA director. "This new insight into the genetic makeup of the swine population can help reduce disease and enable medical advancements in both pigs and humans."    » read more »

WASHINGTON, Oct. 14, 2009 – Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced more than $7 million in grants for research on the biology of plant processes and traits which can be used to breed crops with enhanced value and resilience to climate stress. The research will increase understanding of plant biology from the genome to the field, and provide a foundation for the development of plant varieties with increased yield, reduced production cost, and enhanced quality and nutritional value.    » read more »

YORKTOWN HEIGHTS, N.Y. - 12 Oct 2009: IBM Research (NYSE: IBM) today announced it has received an "Advanced Sequencing Technology Award" from the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), part of the National Institutes of Health, to design a silicon-based "DNA Transistor" that will advance genome sequencing technology and generate progress in health care diagnosis and practice.

As part of the "Revolutionary Genome Sequencing Technologies - The $1000 Genome", NHGRI selected the development of technologies aimed to sequence mammalian genomes for $1,000 or less. NHGRI leadership believes that inexpensive genomic sequencing will revolutionize health and medicine.    » read more »

ARGONNE, Ill. -- June 9, 2008 -- The Institute for Genomics and Systems Biology (IGSB), a joint venture of the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory and the University of Chicago, has acquired two new instruments that provide an enhanced ability to sequence genomes more quickly and broadly.

Argonne's genomics research is primarily funded DOE's Office of Science, which supports research that provides a fundamental scientific understanding of plants and microbes necessary to develop strategies for sequestering carbon gases, producing biofuels and cleaning up waste.    » read more »

Comprehensive analysis provides new view of genomic landscape of leading cause of cancer deaths

6-Sep-2007, HOUSTON - Three genomic tests separately predict the likelihood that a patient's breast cancer will reoccur after surgery without additional treatment, and the cancer's vulnerability to chemotherapy or hormone therapy, researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center report at the first American Society of Clinical Oncology ASCO Breast Cancer Symposium Sept. 7-8 in San Francisco.    » read more »

September 4, 2007, BERKELEY, CA — Three years ago, "ultraconserved elements" were discovered in the genomes of mice, rats, and humans. These are DNA sequences 200 base pairs in length or longer — some are over 700 base pairs long — showing 100-percent identity among the three species. They have been perfectly conserved since the last common ancestor of mice, rats, and humans, which lived some 85 million years ago.    » read more »

For the first time, researchers have replaced the whole genome of a bacterial cell with the genome of a closely related species. In a study published Thursday 28 June by the journal Science at its Science Express Web site, Carole Lartigue and colleagues describe how they transplanted the genome—in the form of naked DNA, virtually free of protein—and effectively turned one species of bacteria into another.    » read more »

Sequencing Unravels Secrets in the Complex Heterochromatin of the Fruit Fly

June 14, 2007 -- BERKELEY, CA — Not so long ago, the difficult-to-sequence, highly repetitive, gene-poor DNA found in regions of chromosomes known as heterochromatin was called "junk." Like dark matter in the universe, the true nature of heterochromatin was unknown.    » read more »