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Searching For Diamonds in the Rough

by CJV

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Putting Organisms in Their Places

Flower Power

 

When “gene prospectors” go mining for gold, they are looking not for valuable ore but for DNA sequences of ecological and economic significance.

“Most of the vast amount of microbial life on earth is unknown to us, but it contains extraordinary capabilities in energy production, waste cleanup, biotechnology and global climate management,” Ari Patrinos said. Patrinos is associate director for biological and environmental research at the U.S. Department of Energy and serves as DOE’s representative to the Joint Genome Institute.

In order to identify and then utilize these capabilities, gene prospectors take large samples from genetically distinctive areas, such as the floor of the Sargasso Sea, where extreme biological conditions frequently harbor uniquely adapted microbes. DNA sequences derived from prospecting ventures have yielded indications of thousands of microbes, still largely unidentified, that can do everything from eat metal or live in highly acidic water to efficiently process corn into ethanol, a gasoline substitute that is refined using many harsh chemicals during a tedious and expensive process.

From a single sample of Sargasso mud, for example, researchers have identified 800 new light-sensitive proteins that mimic the functions of proteins in the human retina. But while the DNA sequences that indicate the proteins’ presence are clearly defined, the actual life forms that harbor the proteins are not yet so evident.

“They’re doing diversity studies just like taxonomists,” said UGA cellular biologist Mark Farmer, but in this case without first determining what kind of diversity they’re finding. That can come later, once they’ve identified specific organisms of interest.

For example, having identified the photoreceptive proteins, the sooner scientists know which mud-dwelling organisms produce them, the sooner these discoveries can be effectively and safely employed in further research and, perhaps, in commercial applications.

“The real value of accurate taxonomy,” Patrinos said, “is to make it possible to more rapidly and accurately predict the properties and potentials of newly discovered organisms.”

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