Two model phages characterized by new CRISPR based technology extensible to diverse phages - Piya, D.; N. Nolan, M.L. Moore, L.A. Ramirez Hernandez, B.F. Cress, R. Young, A.P. Arkin, V.K. Mutalik (2023) Systematic and scalable genome-wide essentiality mapping to identify nonessential genes in phages. PLoS Biology. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002416 OSTI:2228323 The Science Microbial communities pervade everything from soil, air and water to humans and animals.… News Article →
Mixed Nitrate and Metal Contamination Influences Operational Speciation of Toxic and Essential Elements - ENIGMA researchers compared the availability of elements in non-contaminated and acidic nitrate contaminated sediment and found that contamination impacted the bioavailability of essential elements. News Article →
To Study Competition and Cross-Feeding, Scientists Build Synthetic Microbiomes - A new study investigated complex interactions among four cross-feeding microorganisms in a synthetic community (SynCom) that converts cellulose to methane and carbon dioxide, paving the way toward a more predictive understanding of the impact of environmental perturbations on microbial interactions sustaining geochemically significant processes in natural systems. News Article →
Novel Protocol Leverages Automatic Liquid Transfer to Prepare Hundreds of Microbial Cell Cultures for Proteomic Analysis - ENIGMA researchers detailed a step-by-step protocol that consists of cell lysis in alkaline chemical buffer (NaOH/SDS) followed by protein precipitation with high-ionic strength acetone in 96-well format. This protocol, combined with previously established automated protein quantification and protein normalization protocols, provides a rapid, cost-effective method to prepare LC-MS… News Article →
Decomposition decreases molecular diversity and ecosystem similarity of soil organic matter - ENIGMA researchers collaborated with the Lehmann Lab at Cornell University to find that microbial decomposition drives significant variability in the molecular richness and diversity of soil organic matter between soil horizons and ecosystems. News Article →
Microbial Communities Vary Widely Underground, Even When Close - Study finds that geochemistry and hydrogeology can influence community type and function, even when those communities are only 10 cm apart. News Article →
Metal Contamination Causes Metabolic Stress in Environmental Bacteria - ENIGMA researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and University of Georgia discovered that mixed metal waste common to industrial dumping sites causes a distinctive physiological response in bacteria that does not occur during single metal exposure. News Article →
Multicopy suppressor screens reveal convergent evolution of single-gene lysis proteins - Using new barcoded screening technology, ENIGMA researchers uncovered genome-wide targets of diverse including single-stranded RNA-phages (ssRNA-phages)-derived protein antibiotics to efficiently identify the host mechanisms targeted in bacteriolysis. The novel approach could have significant applications for characterizing the hundreds of putative Sgl identified in genomic databases and recent studies. News Article →
ENIGMA researchers awarded for First Place Talks - University of Georgia ENIGMA researchers Jennifer Goff (postdoctoral fellow) and Elizabeth Szink (undergraduate research associate) presented their work at the 10th Annual Southeastern Biogeochemistry Symposium May 12-14,2023 at the University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC . The Southeastern Biogeochemistry Symposium is a unique opportunity for undergraduate students, graduate students,… News Article →
ENIGMA researchers Win 2nd Annual BioEPIC SLAM - Adam Arkin, lead scientist, along with ENIGMA team members Bradley Biggs , a postdoctoral researcher in the Arkin lab, and Mingfei Chen, a postdoctoral researcher in the Chakraborty lab, recently participated in a virtual Research Slam promoting science related to the BioEPIC building. https://bioepic.lbl.gov/slam/ Results: Mingfei Chen… News Article →
ENIGMA scientists highly cited across multiple platforms - ENIGMA scientists Paul Adams and Jizhong Joe Zhou are included in Clarivate's Web of Science Highly Cited Researchers who have demonstrated significant and broad influence reflected in their publication of multiple highly cited papers over the last decade.These highly cited papers rank in the top 1% by citations… News Article →
Jizhong Zhou elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences - Jizhong Joe Zhou (ENIGMA principal investigator, affiliate faculty in Berkeley Lab's Earth & Environmental Sciences Area, director of the Institute for Environmental Genomics at the University of Oklahoma, has been elected as a member of American Academy of Arts and Science (AmAcad). He will participate, along with the… News Article →