THE spring 2018 volume 15 PRIMER issue 2 in this issue

Rumen Microbiome Catalog 2

Spotlight: Annual Meeting Keynotes 3

Highlights from the Meeting 4-5

VEGA Symposium Highlights 6-7

Save the Dates! 8

Functional and

As the global population grows toward 10 billion people, Evan DeLucia, director of the Center for Reproducible: Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation (CABBI), a DOE Bioenergy Research Center at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, asked attendees to rethink agriculture from an ecosystem Annual Meeting perspective and manage the farmland that we have, while also removing CO from the atmosphere. 2 Keynote Highlights

Thinking Outside the Cell for Functional Before introducing the opening keynote to the 13th Annual Genomics Genomics of Energy & Environment Meeting on March 14, 2018, JGI Director Nigel “JGI’s strategic direction is to tions. JGI’s Emerging Technologies Mouncey told the audience the translate genomic information into Opportunity Program (ETOP) has meeting hashtag #JGI2018 was functional understanding,” said worked toward bringing in new already trending on Twitter. It was an Nigel Mouncey, Director of the U.S. technologies developed at other auspicious start to the largest annual Department of Energy (DOE) Joint institutions, making them available meeting held by the JGI, with over- Genome Institute (JGI), a DOE to JGI users. The ETOP aligns with arching themes of tools and tech- User Facility at JGI’s transition over the past two niques researchers are using to mine Lawrence Berkeley National Labora- decades from a high-throughput genomic information and answer tory. “Today, the scale and cost of genome sequencing center to a questions about an organism’s DNA sequencing have afforded the national user facility that provides metabolic structures and functions generation of an unprecedented researchers around the world with to develop solutions to energy and level of gene and genome informa- access to sequencing and computa- environmental challenges. tion for which relatively little is tional analysis capabilities on projects The first to define approaches known regarding function. Thus, relevant to the DOE missions of to the macroscale and microscale there is a critical need to rapidly, energy and environmental challenges. perspectives of their work was Mac- and at scale, assign validated Led by Hal Alper of the University Arthur Fellow Victoria Orphan of function of genes, pathways of Texas at Austin and Michael Caltech, whose opening keynote and genomes.” Jewett of Northwestern University, provided an overview of the ecosys- JGI has developed capabilities the latest approved ETOP proposal tems biology approach her group is such as single-cell genomics, aims to develop an optimized taking to link uncultivated microor- synthetic biology, and metabolomics cell-free platform that will enable ganisms to biogeochemical processes. to move beyond generating a DNA researchers to speed up the “build” Orphan described several approaches sequence to understanding gene and “test” portions of the design- her lab is taking to better understand functions for a myriad of applica- build-test-analyze continued on page 2 the relationship continued on page 3 THE

PRIMER News The Hungate Catalog: References for the Rumen Microbiome identifying biotechnologically relevant crobes to the major metabolic path- enzymes for the conversion of plant ways involved in rumen function, and feedstocks to biofuel and bioproducts. reported that in total, the catalog As reported March 19, 2018, in of genomes encode nearly 33,000 Nature Biotechnology, an international degradative Carbohydrate-Active team led by William (Bill) Kelly, Enzymes which can break down formerly at AgResearch New Zealand’s plant cell walls. Full story at jgi.doe. Grasslands Research Centre, and JGI gov/reference-catalog-for-rumen-micro- scientists presented a reference biome. catalog of rumen microbial genomes and isolates cultivated and sequenced from the Hungate1000 collection. The work, noted Kelly, is the culmina- Thinking Outside the Cell tion of a JGI Community Science Program (CSP) 2012 proposal that continued from page 1 originated at a 2011 meeting of rumen microbiologists. At the begin- cycles in synthetic biology. Cell-free ning of the project, there were only systems have been used successfully reference genomes for 14 rumen for expression of individual proteins bacteria and one rumen methanogen. for decades, but more recent applica- The Hungate catalog now contains tions have focused on enzyme The Hungate catalog is named for Robert a total of 501 genomes—410 newly screening, metabolic pathway design Hungate, the microbiologist who invented the generated from this study, plus an and prototyping and immune system widely-used method of cultivating strictly additional 91 already publicly avail- characterization. anaerobic bacteria that now bears his name. (Image of Robert Hungate from Special able from other studies. “What we’re trying to develop is Collections, Library, “JGI is a world leader in conduct- a generic platform that’s pathway- Davis; composite image by Rekha Seshadri, ing, enabling, and democratizing agnostic, a seamless pipeline from JGI; and Zosia Rostomian, Berkeley Lab sequence­-based research—and one of DNA design to prototype,” said Alper. Creative Services). the few places that does science at “It’s a tool for both discovery and this large scale,” said Rekha Seshadri, understanding, but always a way to Rumen microbes play a vital role in JGI computational biologist and speed up cell engineering.” allowing ruminant livestock to break co-first author of the paper. The The cell-free systems approach down the food they eat, and produce genome sequencing and analysis outlined in the proposal starts by milk, meat and wool which help component of the project used lysing pre-optimized cells from support the livelihoods and food resources of the National Energy selected strains, and then working security of over a billion people Research Scientific Computing Center with the lysates from these strains worldwide. The process, however, is (NERSC), which is supported by the to express genes and pathways of also the single largest human-influ- DOE Office of Science. interest which can be mixed in enced source of the greenhouse gas “This project is a great example of cocktails of varying ratios for easily methane, with these animals releasing how science can progress rapidly if and rapidly characterizing novel and approximately 138 million U.S. short we do things together,” added study improved pathways. tons of methane into the atmosphere co-first author Sinead Leahy, now with Jewett added that the cell-free each year. the New Zealand Agricultural Green- systems framework wasn’t even Understanding the diversity and house Gas Research Centre. possible two years ago. function of the rumen microbiome Conceived as a community re- “We hope to draw in researchers is a critical step toward developing source, the Hungate catalog encom- from the broader community that can technologies and practices that passes 75 percent of genus-level leverage these new tools within the support efficient global food produc- taxa reported from the rumen and all JGI,” he added. Read the full story at tion from ruminants while mitigating 410 genomes sequenced in the study jgi.doe.gov/freedom-flexibility-etop- methane emissions. Additionally, can be downloaded. The researchers thinking-outside-the-cell-for-functional- there is considerable interest in were able to assign individual mi- genomics.

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PRIMER Keynotes

Annual Meeting Keynotes continued from page 1

Victoria Orphan Nigel Mouncey, Kristala Prather, Susannah Tringe John Ioannidis

between the global methane budget unwanted end products are necessary thereof—that plagues the scientific and anaerobic oxidizers of methane for cell growth, said keynote speaker research enterprise delivered by John (AOM), organisms in seep sediments Kristala Prather, a professor of Ioannidis of the Stanford School of that make a living oxidizing methane chemical engineering at the Massa- Medicine and co-director of the coupled to sulfur reduction. “We’re chusetts Institute of Technology Meta-Research Innovation Center at interested in breadth of genomic and (MIT). So the challenge of synthetic Stanford (METRICS). In recent years, ecological diversity, niche differentia- biology is navigating that complex there’s been growing concern about tion and metabolic drivers of AOM network to maximize productivity this topic, reflected in an increasing syntrophy,” she told the crowd at while minimizing unwanted byprod- number of conversations and publica- the Hilton Union Square in San ucts and unnecessary growth. The tions across all 22 major scientific Francisco, Calif. flagship project in Prather’s lab has disciplines. There’s no real consensus To link organisms in their environ- been engineering microorganisms like about what “reproducible research” ments to their biogeochemical pro- E. coli and yeast to synthesize means, but there are at least three cesses, she noted, “We really need a glucaric acid, considered by the DOE broad aspects, with the shared goal of variety of different techniques. There’s to be a top “value added chemical enhancing trust in scientific findings. no one single formula that works for an from biomass.” Although the com- When you do have replications, ecosystem.” In applying different pound is found naturally in fruit and Ioannidis said, you can put all the techniques, she hopes the technologi- vegetables, there is no known micro- data together and perform meta-anal- cal advances will allow researchers to bial pathway to produce it. ysis to try to assess whether they show bridge the different scales involved to Prather’s starting point was a consistency—but also whether there’s both understand how ecosystems are reference glucaric acid synthesis some hint of biases that might be working, and forecast or model how pathway from citrus, with a dozen or affecting similar studies on the same ecosystems will respond to potential so steps. The goal was to maximize question. Solutions can be thought of changes in the future. productivity. With no lack of sequence at each step in the scientific investi- She also reminded the attendees to data, she added, “the question is how gation process, but for any of these always keep in mind that the labels do we get through all the data we to work, however, Ioannidis stressed attached to unknown microbes can have” to identify potential proteins the need to find ways to incentivize minimize their true diversity, and their of interest when predictions from adoption. One approach is to re-engi- roles in regulating the planet’s function annotation can lead you neer the rewards system. “There’s biogeochemical processes. “With no astray? The Sisyphean task of sorting nothing wrong with publishing papers, cultured representatives, it’s easy to through massive amounts of sequence per se,” he said, “however we also get lost in the simplicity of placehold- data ultimately led to a collaboration need to find ways to reward scientists er names when there’s a lot more with the JGI through a CSP proposal. who score higher on quality, who diversity hidden within.” Watch her Watch her talk at bit.ly/JGI2018- share more openly, and whose work talk at bit.ly/JGI2018Orphan. Prather. is more reproducible and has more To some extent, simplicity is The final keynote address was translational impact when it is desired in synthetic biology, but one a bracing reality check on the issue applied.” Watch his talk at bit.ly/ can’t just knock out pathways whose of reproducibility—or, rather, the lack JGI2018Ioannidis.

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THE PRIMER 13th Annual JGI Meeting

Highlights from the 2018 JGI Genomics of Energy & Environment Meeting

agriculture division, Becker cited a industries—both of which rely on McKinsey study that found gender and Saccharomyces cerevisiae—total about ethnic diversity in leadership increases $108 billion and $60 billion in annual earnings. What’s more, she said, sales, respectively. In comparison, he employee diversity yields more diverse continued, the potential cellulosic solutions; companies perform better, ethanol industry is about $100 billion and there’s less employee turnover. per year. Xylome’s non-conventional “So why do we work so hard to expand yeasts make enzymes that can break our sphere of knowledge for science,” down stillage organics and convert she asked, “but not our sphere of them to high-value fish oil or palm oil knowledge for people?” Recounting her substitutes. A comparative genomic Merce Montoliu Nerin talked about fungi. own career trajectory to illustrate her analysis of yeasts done with the JGI point, she challenged the audience to showed wider genetic diversity than Lipids from Sedimentary Rocks start treating personal interactions as expected, which could lead to other You can’t get blood from a stone, they would scientific questions. yeasts being harnessed for biotechno- but, as Amy Banta explained, you can logical applications. get lipids from sedimentary rocks— Engineering Microbial Commu- and gain insight into the ancient The Social Life of Bacteria organisms that made them. Cyclic nities for Form and Function triterpenoids, a class of lipids pro- “As biological engineers, we try Andrzej Joachimiak, director of the duced by both eukaryotes and bacte- to get our bugs of interest to do Advanced Photon Source Structural ria, can be preserved for millions of more tasks,” said Cynthia Collins of Biology Center and the Midwest Center years, becoming molecular fossils. But Rennselaer Polytechnic Institute, “but for Structural Genomics, reminded when there’s a fossil lipid that has no it’s better if we can divide the load attendees there’s still plenty you can known corollary in modern record, among multiple organisms.” Division learn from protein structure that you said Banta, a research scientist in of labor among different strains or can’t from sequence alone. “You have Paula Welander’s lab at Stanford species within microbial communities a gene, you have a sequence, we can University, “we don’t know how to reduces the metabolic load on indi- make a protein,” he said while talking interpret what we find.” In order to viduals and allows you to take advan- about the national user facility’s expand the known cyclic triterpenoid tage of their different capabilities, capabilities at Argonne National biosynthetic capability of bacteria, Collins noted. It also provides the Laboratory. To underscore this point, Welander’s lab has partnered with the flexibility of a modular platform: “I’m Joachimiak looked at bacterial JGI DNA Synthesis Program to analyze interested in thinking of microbes as toxin-anti-toxin immunity systems, putative novel triterpenoid cyclases modules for different applications,” and specifically contact-dependent encoded in freshwater, marine, and she said. For example, cellulose can terrestrial metagenomes. be broken down using enzymes to turn waste materials into simple sugars, Diversity and Inclusion: but production schemes are limited by the cost of enzyme purification. Going Beyond Gender and Race It’s human nature for people to be Non-Conventional Yeasts for most comfortable among peers who are more like themselves than not, Biotechnical Applications Sheena Becker acknowledged, ad- “Biotechnical applications start with dressing the necessity of, and strate- problems or opportunities and mar- gies for, increasing diversity and kets,” said Tom Jeffries, founder and inclusion. Lead microbiologist at president of Xylome, noting that the Han Wosten revisited his JGI collaboration to Corteva Agriscience, DowDuPont’s U.S. beer and wine fermentation sequence the fungus Schizophyllum commune.

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growth inhibition (CDI), a phenom- studied using fungal ecology, to the enon defined by delivery of protein effects of land use and the ecology toxin to the cytoplasm of neighbor of ectomycorrhizal associations in bacteria upon contact—which he old-growth tropical rainforest, oil palm referred to as “toxin on a stick.” CDI plantation, and regenerating forests. systems are found in more than 80 different bacterial species, represent- From Single Nuclei to Whole ing more than 30 sequence-divergent families, with commensurate diversity Fungal Genome Assemblies of toxin activity and inactivation “When you don’t have the tools, strategies. His bottom line, said you have to make the tools,” said Joachimiak: “Biology rests on macro- doctoral scientist Mercè Montoliu JGI’s Zhong Wang listens to UC Merced graduate student Sabah Ul-Hasan, who had molecular structures: conceptually, Nerin of a method developed in a 2015 JGI/UC Merced fellowship. functionally, and mechanistically.” Anna Rosling’s lab at Sweden’s Uppsala University to obtain genomic Tools for Yeast Engineering Engineering Wheat for data from single nuclei of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. The method, The yeast Yarrowia lipolytica is Take-all Resistance adapted from single cell genomics, a promising host for engineered The fungal pathogen Gaeumanno- involves extraction and selection of pathways for the renewable produc- myces graminis var. tritici infects the individual spores, which are then tion of lipid-based fuels and chemi- roots of grass and cereal plants, crushed, and the nuclei stained and cals. Ian Wheeldon and his colleagues causing devastating “take-all dis- isolated using Fluorescence-Activated at the University of California, River- ease,” which is responsible for up to Cell Sorting. Individual nuclei are side are working to facilitate the rapid $480 million of wheat crop yield then amplified to obtain enough DNA development of new Y. lipolytica losses per year. Avena strigosa, known for nanopore sequencing. Montoliu strains. They first had to identify as the bristle or black oat, on the Nerin presented preliminary results a standardized set of sites for pathway other hand, is pretty resistant to from the 117-megabase genome engineering, then demonstrate the take-all, thanks to antimicrobial assembly of Claroideoglomus claroi- sites’ usefulness. They then created defense compounds called avenacins. deum, quick annotation of which both CRISPR activation (CRISPRa) One solution to mitigate losses due to revealed classes of transposable and interference (CRISPRi) systems to take-all would be to use oat as a elements involved in horizontal gene precisely and predictably upregulate rotation crop with wheat, but farmers transfer. “Maybe they [arbuscular or knockdown target gene expression, aren’t willing to do that due to the mycorrhizal fungi] are not only respectively. These CRISPR-Cas9 income difference, noted Aymeric exchanging nutrients with [host] based tools are the impetus for a new Leveau, a postdoctoral scientist in plants, but also DNA,” she mused. joint project with the JGI DNA Synthe- Anne Osbourn’s lab at the John Innes sis Program. Centre in England. “So, we need to Metabolite Production in Selected Meeting videos are on the engineer wheat to be resistant,” he JGI’s Youtube channel at http://bit.ly/ said, by building an avenacin biosyn- Algal-Associated Bacteria JGI2018videos. thetic pathway in that plant. “Most of the interesting questions in science don’t end with a ‘Eureka!’ Assessing Soil Microbial but rather end with a ‘Huh,’” noted Lawrence Livermore National Labora- Responses to Land Use Change tory research scientist Ty Samo as he In a wide-ranging talk that took the pondered the results showing how a audience from the island of Manhat- growth stimulating auxin released by tan to Southeast Asia, Krista McGuire bacteria might interface with the of the University of Oregon presented diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum. work on microbial responses to two One of the challenges of creating key types of land use change: urban- robust and resilient algae for sustain- ization and agriculture. Her talk able fuels is understanding how algae ranged from the impact of green communicate with and are affected Algal researcher Susan Brawley highlighted infrastructure in New York City, by the microbes surrounding them. efforts of her JGI collaborators.

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Viral Omics: At the Tip of the Iceberg fishing out viral genes from general metagenomic data,” he said. Watch his talk at bit.ly/JGI2018KooninVEGA. Marilyn Roossinck of Penn State University ended the first day of the symposium with a keynote addressing plant viruses, even as she reminded everyone that viruses are not always pathogens. She talked about an ongoing project to inventory plant virus biodiversity, admitting, “We know every host, and I won’t finish this before I retire,” before sending out a call for others to carry on the work. Addressing the disconnect between the high percentage of persistent plant viruses in the environment and the disproportionately low level of research on these groups, she talked about sampling nearly 700 plants in tallgrass prairies, from which a third were found to carry partitioviruses. Eric Delwart of Blood Systems Research Institute (BSRI) poses a question considered by Her team questioned whether or not (left to right): Bonnie Hurwitz, University of Arizona; Xutao Deng, BSRI; VEGA co-organizer these viruses protect the plants from Phil Hugenholtz, Director of the Australian Centre for Ecogenomics at the University of Queensland; acute infections. In experiments and, , JGI Prokaryote Super Program Head and lead organizer of the VEGA Symposium. involving jalapeño cultivars, they found virus infections could influence More than 150 people attended As an example, he recounted the aphid feeding in a complex virus- the first ever Viral EcoGenomics and discovery of a single bacteriophage plant-insect interaction network. Applications (VEGA) Symposium held genome—crAssphage—that was In another story, she talked about during the JGI’s 13th Annual Genom- abundant in the human virome what she thinks is the oldest known ics of Energy & Environment Meeting (a bacteriophage commonly found in virus, now known as Zea mays in San Francisco, Calif. human fecal samples), but most of Chrysovirus 1, found when deep The symposium opened with its genes had no known homologs sequencing ancient corn. The viral a keynote delivered by NCBI bioinfor- and even its host had been unknown sequence appears to have changed matician Eugene Koonin, who until researchers mined metagenom- just 3 percent in the past thousand immediately declared viruses are the ics data. That single phage genome, years. Watch her talk at bit.ly/ most abundant organisms, and by Koonin said, led to the identification JGI2018RoossinckVEGA. extension, the most important. In of a novel family of bacteriophages Joe DeRisi, co-director of the Chan a talk that covered nearly all known that include hundreds of diverse Zuckerberg Hub and also a professor viral groups and from his experience genomes. at the University of California, San working on viral genomes, he talked During his discussion of giant Francisco, used his keynote address about the increasing importance of viruses, Koonin referenced using the to discuss the applications of identify- mining metagenomic data to uncover 2017 Science paper he co-authored ing viruses. His first case study the Earth’s viral diversity, and how with JGI Microbial Program head described identifying the rubella virus horizontal virus transfer is a major Tanja Woyke and her team to con- in the eyes of a male patient who had driver of virus evolution. “If you sider the notion of a fourth domain suffered from recurring uveitis for over discover a novel virus these days,” of life. (Review that work at jgi.doe. half his life. Step by step, DeRisi he advised, “search the metagenomic gov/discovered-novel-group-of-giant- established a plausible correlation data carefully and you will probably viruses). between the viral infection and the discover a diverse and exciting “It’s very clear that we are dealing fact that only the women in the new family.” with the tip of the proverbial iceberg patient’s home country are vaccinated

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against rubella as children. He used medical cases to describe how doctors at UCSF can now order metagenom- ics sequencing tests to provide an unbiased assessment of infectious diseases to help with diagnoses and subsequently, treatment. One advan- tage of the university hospital setting, he noted, is “a rigor and thoroughness that you don’t see in startup, with nothing hidden because we are talking about people’s lives.” In another case, this time involving Marilyn J. Roossinck Joe DeRisi non-humans, he talked about identify- ing a new picornavirus seen in several tion. (“Because I knew [of your talk]!” NCBI’s Rodney Brister. “For better or bird species that causes avian keratin Koonin retorted.) She said the known worse NCBI is at the center of the disorder, which causes beak over- families of CRESS DNA viruses have data universe,” Brister said. “What growth and impacts the bird’s ability doubled between 2011 and 2017, can we do to make it better to find to feed. Despite the original percep- “and we know host range is wider than and retrieve virus data on NCBI?” tion that only certain species are previously thought.” Reminding the A longtime collaborator, David infected, he described finding the crowd that most of the known viral Mead of Varigen previously partnered virus present not just in corvids but diversity are known only by their with the JGI to identify thermostable in raptors and now in other birds as sequences, her lab has focused on enzymes from DNA sequences extract- well. Watch his talk at bit.ly/ developing tools to classify novel ed from thermophilic environments JGI2018DeRisiVEGA. CRESS DNA viruses and she described that could be developed for industrial Among the notable talks during the a few applications. applications. At the VEGA Sympo- Symposium was one by Siobain Duffy P​romoting​ the current status and sium, he spoke about the search for of Rutgers University, who covered the future development of publicly new enzymes that could be harnessed only group of viruses Koonin didn’t accessible viral databases, there were for various biotechnological applica- mention in his keynote – circular also brief presentations about JGI’s tions by looking for new viruses. As an single-stranded DNA viruses called IMG/VR from David Paez-Espino and example, he spoke of the challenge in CRESS viruses that are pathogens and Simon Roux, and an evolving DataDic- culturing and cultivating the abundant can significantly limit crop produc- er-based virus variation interface from Aquificae bacteria found in hyperther- mophilic geothermal environments. Searching for genes of interest, his team started with the sequence of a functional DNA polymerase that had been isolated from viral metagenomic data collected at Octopus Springs in Yellowstone National Park. From the metagenomic data, they were able to assemble the Octopus Spring OS3173 virus. Additionally, a database search for homologs of the OS3173 DNA polymerase revealed sequence variants from 12 springs in Yellow- stone and other locations. Selected VEGA Symposium videos from the Annual Meeting are on the JGI’s Youtube channel at http://bit.ly/ JGI2018videos.

Eugene Koonin

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THE 14TH ANNUAL Register Now! Genomics of Energy & IMG Workshop at Environment Meeting SAVE ASM Microbe 2018 Hilton Union Square | San Francisco, California June 7, 2018, Atlanta, GA HOSTED BY THE http://bit.ly/IMGatASMMicrobe2018 U.S. Department of Energy THE Stop by the joint JGI/KBase Booth Joint Genome Institute #1311 at the Meeting! DATE Microbial Genomics & Watch this site! usermeeting.jgi.doe.gov For speaker/session ideas, contact Susannah Tringe: (MGM) [email protected] APRIL 1–5, 2019 Workshop For sponsorship opportunities, contact David Gilbert: September 17-21, 2018 [email protected] Walnut Creek, Calif. mgm.jgi.doe.gov Visualizing Microbial Interactions DNA Synthesis Call and Decomposition at the Microscale White papers due July 31, 2018 http://bit.ly/JGIsynsciCall “One of the ingest, and as a result, microbes DNA Synthesis Science proposals amazing things sometimes have to act extracellularly, are accepted on a continuous basis about microbial and collectively, for their own sur- through JGI’s Community Science ecology is it vival. To study microbial decomposi- Program and are reviewed twice a year. really highlights tion of organic matter in soil, the the awesome Shank lab has developed a transpar- Look for JGI’s presence at power of large ent soil-like microcosm based on the following conferences: numbers,” said Nafion, a synthetic fluoropolymer that Kriti Sharma, becomes optically clear when wet. Plant Biology 2018 a graduate They’ve also established a multi- July 14-18, 2018, Montreal, Canada student in Elizabeth Shank’s lab modal 3D imaging platform to Stop by the joint JGI/KBase Booth at the University of North Carolina, dynamically visualize the assembly #1200! Chapel Hill. A bacterium’s size, for and activity of microbial communities instance, constrains what it can in this soil-like environment. Society for Industrial Microbiol- ogy and Biotechnology (SIMB) August 12-16, 2018, Chicago, IL Stop by Booth #33 and chat with representatives of the JGI, EMSL, JBEI, the Advanced Biofuels Process Demonstration Unit (ABPDU) and the Agile BioFoundry.

Contact The Primer David Gilbert, Managing Editor [email protected] Massie Santos Ballon, Editor Greta Lorge, Writer Prior to John Ioannidis’ keynote, JGI Director Nigel Mouncey announced the winners of the first-ever poster competition. Left to Right: UC Berkeley’s Benjamin Adler (Best Student Poster); LLNL’s Xavier Mayali (Best Outside-the-Box Poster); UC Davis’ Christy Grettenberger (Best Postdoc Poster); and, University of Massachusetts Amherst’s Kristen De Angelis (Best PI Poster).”

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