The US Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute has released version 4.0 of Phytozome, a web portal for comparative plant genomics to advance biofuel, food, feed, and fiber research. The new release includes 14 plant genomes, among them eight that have been sequenced at the DOE JGI: black cottonwood tree, Sorghum bicolor, soybean, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, Brachypodium distachyon, Arabidopsis lyrata, Physcomitrella patens, and Selaginella moellendorffii. It also includes the completed sequences of rice, papaya, grape, Medicago, Arabidopsis thaliana, and maize bacterial artificial chromosome sequences from the Maize Genome Sequencing Project. Phytozome, a collaboration between scientists at the DOE JGI, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and the University of California, Berkeley, Center for Integrative Genomics, is available here.
ZyGem has signed an agreement with Rubicon to incorporate its DNA extraction technology into Rubicon's analytical products.
The agreement will initially focus on diagnostic single-cell whole genome amplification kits, and may be expanded later to include products for broader research and diagnostic applications.
ZyGem's technology uses a proprietary thermophilic enzyme to extract DNA from samples in a single closed-tube system. According to the company, it reduces the time and cost of DNA extractions while simplifying laboratory workflow, minimizing error, reducing the risk of contamination, ensuring sample integrity, and facilitating extractions from trace samples.
Rubicon plans to launch PicoPlex kits soon that integrate ZyGem's DNA extraction technology into a new method to amplify single genomes. The product will target the pre-implantation genetic diagnostics and cancer diagnostics markets. It will enable reference labs to begin qPCR, microarray, or sequencing analyses less than three hours after collecting patient cells.
DNAVision of Belgium has launched next-generation sequencing services on the Roche/454 GS FLX and the Illumina Genome Analyzer platforms. It provides the services at its facilities in Liège in collaboration with the Groupe Interdisciplinaire de Génoprotéomique Appliquée from the University of Liège. Through its Agrifood and Healthcare business units, the company provides de novo sequencing, targeted resequencing using Agilent's SureSelect method or long-range PCR, microbial strain sequencing, whole transcriptome sequencing, digital gene expression, metatranscriptomics, miRNA analysis, metagenomics, ChIP-seq, and methylation analysis.