Eric Olo Ndela

The US Department of Energy’s Joint Genome Institute recently held the New Lineages of Life Symposium at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. The symposium brought together researchers focused on diverse and varied ecosystems but united by their goal to discover and characterize microbial dark matter.

This Genome Watch article discusses the dominance of uncultivated microorganisms in natural ecosystems and how the consequent genome-driven insights could guide the rational design of synthetic microbial communities. You have full access to this article via your institution.