Presenting a genomic encyclopedia of bacteria

While sequencing the genomes of complex organisms, like humans, remains a costly and time-consuming process, simpler organisms, like bacteria, can be sequenced relatively trivially.  A new paper featured in the upcoming issue of Nature covers the results of 200 dispered organisms and shows a fascinating genomic graph of the results.

A new paper takes an approach that’s less driven by self-interest. Its authors surveyed hundreds of strains of bacteria and archaea that we know how to culture, and picked 200 of them that are broadly dispersed across the tree of life, based on the sequence of a ribosomal RNA gene. They’re now in the process of completing the genomes of all of them, and the paper serves as an interim report.

via Presenting a genomic encyclopedia of bacteria (and archaea).

This story written by Randall Hand

Randall Hand is a visualization scientist working for a federal research lab, aiding researchers to discover the insights buried within their terabyte datasets generated on some of the most powerful supercomputers in the world. He also runs VizWorld.com .

Science biomed, genome