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A phylogeny driven genomic encyclopedia of bacteria and archaea
Author(s) -
Eisen Jonathan A
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.24.1_supplement.81.1
Subject(s) - genome , archaea , biology , phylogenetic tree , phylogenetics , phylum , evolutionary biology , computational biology , phylogenetic diversity , phylogenomics , bacterial genome size , genomics , kegg , genetics , gene , clade , gene ontology , gene expression
Sequencing of bacterial and archaeal genomes has revolutionized our understanding of the many roles played by microorganisms, including those related to human health. Unfortunately, the available genomes are from a highly biased subset of the known phylogenetic diversity of microbes. In order to explore the value added by choosing microbial genomes for sequencing based on their evolutionary relationships, the Joint Genome Institute has sequenced and analyzed the genomes of 56 culturable species of bacteria and archaea selected to maximize phylogenetic coverage. I will present results from analysis of these genomes that demonstrate that there are pronounced benefits (compared to an equivalent set of genomes randomly selected from the existing database) in diverse areas including the reconstruction of phylogenetic history, the discovery of new protein families and novel biological properties, and the prediction of functions for known genes from other organisms. The results strongly support the need for systematic ‘phylogenomic’ efforts to compile a phylogeny‐driven ‘Genomic Encyclopedia of Bacteria and Archaea’ in order to derive maximum knowledge from existing microbial genome data as well as from genome sequences to come.