DOE JGI extends the capabilities of the Integrated Microbial Genome System

A special version of IMG, IMG/EDU, has been established to support DOE JGI's Education Program in Microbial Genome Annotation (http://www.jgi.doe.gov/education/genomeannotation.html) for teaching microbial genome analysis and annotation using specific microbial genomes in the comparative context of all the genomes available in IMG.

"IMG/EDU will serve as the core of a web-based portal that enables undergraduates to participate in microbial genome annotation," said Cheryl Kerfeld, head of DOE JGI's Education Program. "Currently, students at 12 schools nationally are using the portal in their molecular biology, genetics, microbiology and biochemistry courses in which they examine gene calls and annotate genes and biochemical pathways. By helping to build curated genomes with researchers across the globe, undergraduates will discover the concepts and applications of bioinformatics using IMG/EDU." An additional resource, IMG/ACT (http://jgi.doe.gov/education/annotation_tools.html), provides support for managing student classes and assignments, as well as for sharing teaching materials and guiding students in their study of gene calls and functional annotations.

IMG, accessible to the public at http://img.jgi.doe.gov/, IMG/M, (http://img.jgi.doe.gov/m), and IMG/EDU (http://img.jgi.doe.gov/edu), are the result of a collaboration between the DOE JGI and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Biological Data Management and Technology Center (BDMTC).

The U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute, supported by the DOE Office of Science, unites the expertise of five DOE national laboratories -- Lawrence Berkeley, Lawrence Livermore, Los Alamos, Oak Ridge, and Pacific Northwest -- along with the Stanford Human Genome Center to advance genomics in support of the DOE missions related to clean energy generation and environmental characterization and cleanup. DOE JGI's Walnut Creek, Calif., Production Genomics Facility provides integrated high-throughput sequencing and computational analysis that enable systems-based scientific approaches to these challenges. Additional information about DOE JGI can be found at: http://www.jgi.doe.gov/.