Genome Watch

This month's Genome Watch highlights some of the technical challenges that need to be overcome to gain further insight into microbial metatranscriptomes.

This month's Genome Watch reviews a recent paper that used a metagenomics approach to characterize the plasmid content of bovine rumen samples.

This month's Genome Watch describes how analysis of a basal member of the Plantae can inform us about the evolution of photosynthetic eukaryotes.

This month's Genome Watch highlights the power of palaeomicrobiology in extracting detailed information about the genomes of ancient microorganisms.

This month's Genome Watch highlights new insights into the impact of food production on the evolution of microorganisms.

This month's Genome Watch highlights how a population study, in conjunction with a reference genome, can identify the evolutionary features that contribute to drug resistance in a protozoan parasite.

This month's Genome Watch highlights new perspectives on polygenic adaptation and its consequences for fitness in microbial populations.

This month's Genome Watch reviews a series of recent papers describing horizontal gene transfer from microorganisms to nematodes.

This month's Genome Watch discusses the genome of the free-living amoeboflagellate protistNaegleria gruberi.

Genome Watch describes a new technique for DNA amplification from a single cell.

This month's Genome Watch discusses the methods and implications of recent rapid sequence analyses of outbreak strains ofEscherichia coli and Vibrio cholerae.

This month's Genome Watch describes how the large size of the mimiviral genome is a result of the sympatric lifestyle of mimivirus in host amoebae.

Single-cell genomics, in which individual cells are isolated from environmental samples and their genomic DNA is sequenced, is increasingly used to characterize uncultivated microorganisms.

High-throughput sequencing technologies are being used to complement phenotypic screens, thereby greatly improving the power of these techniques.

Bacterially derived enzymes that can degrade lignocellulose from plant biomass may help the production of biofuels.

This month's Genome Watch looks at how recombination has providedStreptococcus pneumoniaewith the adaptability to overcome antibiotic and immune challenges.

This month's Genome Watch looks at the differentBacillusspecies that can cause anthrax.

This month's Genome Watch discusses the application of genomic analyses to the study of difficult-to-culture sexually transmitted pathogens.

Interest in the human intestinal microbiota has intensified in recent years, but research has been largely focused on bacteriology. This month's Genome Watch reviews a recent metagenomics study that instead aims to better characterize the viruses that inhabit our guts.

Following on from last month's discussion of sequence assembly and correction, this month's Genome Watch examines genome annotation in the context of advances in second-generation sequencing.