WALNUT CREEK, CA--By comparing the complete genome sequences of
two plant-killing pathogens and related organisms, researchers
from the U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute (DOE
JGI), in collaboration with the Virginia Bioinformatics
Institute (VBI) and others, have uncovered crucial aspects of
the disease-causing mechanisms of "sudden oak death" (SOD) and
soybean root rot disease. The research, the result of a four-
year, $4 million multi-agency project supported by DOE, U.S.
Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the National Science
Foundation (NSF), appears in the Sept. 1, 2006, edition of
Science (vol. 313, No. 5791). "This project best exemplifies how
the capabilities that were established at the DOE JGI for
sequencing the human genome are now proving to be essential for
addressing important environmental challenges," said Eddy Rubin,
DOE JGI Director. "We are now capable of rapidly responding to
the urgent needs of the nation's largest industry, agriculture,
where genome sequence information