Currently a multi institutional pilot project managed by Berkeley Lab, the goal of Microbial Community Analysis and Functional Evaluation in Soils (m-CAFEs) is to develop complementary approaches to precisely edit microbiomes with foundational tools and molecular ecosystems biology based understanding required to predict, manipulate, and design rhizosphere microbial communities impacting DOE relevant activities. m-CAFEs is a collaborative, coordinated and integrated, mission-driven program to interrogate the function of soil microbiomes with critical implications for carbon cycling and sequestration, nutrient availability and plant productivity in natural and managed ecosystems. The project targets molecular mechanisms governing carbon and nutrient transformation in soil, with a focus on microbial metabolic networks. This project seeks to develop foundational genomics tools to explore and understand molecular ecosystem biology.
