NEW YORK, May 13 (GenomeWeb News) - The US Department of Energy's Joint Genome Institute yesterday announced 40 new genome sequencing projects it will pursue in 2006 under its Community Sequencing program.
The projects, which were selected from 135 submitted proposals, include:
n The tropical grain Sorghum bicolor
n The common monkey flower, Mimulus guttatus, a relative of tomatoes and potatoes
n A community of microorganisms in the hindgut of termites
n The Channel catfish, Ictalurus punctatus, and the blue catfish, I. furcatus
n Five species of the Cichlidae family of fish from Lake Malawi in East Africa
n Arabidopsis lyrata and Capsella rubella, two mustard relatives used as model organisms
n A community of waste-degrading bacteria capable of treating industrial streams contaminated with terephthalate, a byproduct of plastics manufacturing
n A community of Korachaeota, a group of Archaea obtained from a hot spring in Yellowstone National Park
n Six members of the Crenarchaeota group of Archaea, including Methanocorpusculum labreanum, isolated from surface sediments of La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles
n Mycosphaerella fijiensis, a fungal pathogen that causes black Sigatoka, a disease affecting banana plants
n Mytilus californianus, a pacific mussel that indicates environmental pollution
n Triphysaria versicolor, a parasitic plant that releases chemicals into the soil that affect the growth of other plants
n Trichoderma virens, a fungal soil microorganism that has promise as a weed killer
n The porcelain crab Petrolisthes cinctipes, which is heat- and cold-tolerant
n The butterfly Bicyclus anyana
The full list of organisms to be sequenced can be found here.