The Hyphal Tip

Looks like the USDA, Mars (the candy company), and IBM are partnering up to sequence the Cacao plants genome for everyone to use. Here is the article over at BBC News.

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This is a research blog so I though I’d post some quick numbers we are seeing for de novo assembly of the [[Neurospora crassa]] genome using Velvet. The genome of N.crassa is about 40Mb and sequencing of several flow cells using Solexa/Illumina technology to see what kind of de novo reconstruction we’d get.

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NPR had a story this weekend on Cocoa plantation collapse and the ecological aftermath of the changes the witches’ broom fungus [[Moniliophthora perniciosa]] has wreaked. The genome sequence project for this Homobasidiomycete fungus is underway.

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A year ago researchers at James Madison University discovered that, Pedobacter cryoconitis, a bacteria first found on the skin of red backed salamanders, was found to prevent the growth of the chytrid B. dendrobatidis, which is currently decimating frog populations.

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We’re excited that a Penicillium marneffei grant to Mat Fisher and collaborators has been funded by the Welcome Trust. It includes a collaboration with University College London, our lab, JCVI, and Univ of Melbourne. This project will explore functional and comparative genomics approaches to studying the fungus

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Just finished attending Genetics and Cell Biology of Basidiomycetes in Cape Girardeau, MO which was an intimate gathering of basidiomycetaphiles.  I learned about systems that are used for studying fruiting body development, genetic mapping, pheromone and mating genes, kinesin dynamics, meoitic gene regulation, and a host of topics.  I’m happy I got a chance to meet more folks in the community and learned about where informatics is needed

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