Combining network analyses with metagenomics uncovers microbial interactions and a vitamin super-producer m-CAFEs researchers at University of California, Berkeley demonstrated a new method for identifying bacteria that are interacting and determining the nature of the interaction. They predicted and confirmed experimentally that a Variovorax bacterium in a bioreactor community was producing significant amounts of vitamin B1 for other community members, yielding new insight into the … [Read more...]
Plant growth-promoting bacterial regulation of root growth in Arabidopsis
Soil microorganisms interact with plant roots in a variety of different ways. For example, microorganisms may carry out harmful activities such as infection, or sequestration of nutrients required for plant survival. In other cases, plant growth-promoting bacteria (PGPB) carry out beneficial activities such as nitrogen fixation, or protection from environmental stress (ex. from pathogens or drought). Microorganisms can also "communicate" with the plants via the production or destruction of … [Read more...]
m-CAFEs Researcher Wins Most Effective Science Flash talk
Sannidhi Mennon, Research Associate Mortimer Lab, Lawrence Berkeley Lab Sannidhi Mennon, an RA in the Mortimer lab, won a prize for most effective flash talk at the recent EGDB divisional annual meeting. Sannidhi described work she's doing as part of the m-CAFEs SFA. Brachypodium distachyon is a model grass closely related to essential food and fuel crops such as wheat, sorghum and switchgrass. Transgenic B.distachyon is a valuable tool for studying the genetics of … [Read more...]
m-CAFEs in 2nd Annual BioEPIC SLAM
Four members of the m-CAFEs team recently participated in a virtual Research Slam promoting science related to the BioEPIC facility. Trent Northen, lead scientist, gave an overview presentation about the SFA. He was joined by m-CAFEs team members Manuel Villalobos, a postdoctoral researcher in the Glass Lab at UC Berkeley, and Avery Roberts, a graduate student in the Barrangou Lab at North Carolina State University. Manual and Avery presented their research and competed for the honor of Slam … [Read more...]
m-CAFEs Jillian Banfield awarded 2023 Van Leeuwenhoek Medal for impactful contribution to science
The Royal Netherlands Society for Microbiology (KNVM) recognizes m-CAFEs principal investigator Jillian Banfield with the ‘2023 Van Leeuwenhoek Medal’ for her impactful contributions to the understanding of complex microbial communities and their interaction with the environment. Her pioneering work on groundbreaking technologies such as genome-resolved metagenomics and community proteomics to study diverse communities of bacteria, archaea, and phages, has led to the addition of complete new … [Read more...]
