( number of genomes it covers said Vict...)DOE JGI launches IMG public online microbial genome data clearinghouse

Nikos Kyrpides, of DOE JGI's Microbial Genome Analysis Program (MGAP), provided scientific leadership and overall coordination for the IMG project. MGAP manages the IMG's data content and curation and helped develop the system, with additional support provided by DOE JGI's Microbial Ecology and Genome Data System groups. "The IMG system champions the principle of integration in an evolutionary context" said Kyrpides. "This is critical for enabling the generation of high-quality annotations, and comprehensive metabolic reconstructions.

"The first release of IMG offers a comprehensive genome data exploration system of the DOE JGI-sequenced genomes to our collaborators and the scientific community at large." According to Kyrpides, future releases of IMG will provide enhanced data analysis capabilities and mechanisms that will allow the scientific community to participate in the annotation effort.

"There are hundreds of bacterial genome sequences in multiple databases with hundreds of new genomes expected this year," said Gary Andersen, Molecular Microbial Ecology Group Leader of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Earth Sciences Division. "It has become an increasingly difficult task to track down all relevant sequences to compare with your favorite gene."

Andersen uses IMG for a project sponsored by the DOE Genomics: GTL program, which targets the use of DNA sequences as starting points for systematically tackling questions about the essential processes of living systems. Andersen is exploring the potential of a particular microbe, Caulobacter crescentus, for heavy-metal remediation in wastewater.

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Source:DOE/Joint Genome Institute