The first decade of the Genomic Encyclopaedia of Bacteria and Archaea

Prof Hans-Peter Klenk, Professor, School of Natural and Environmental Sciences

Date/Time: 16th of January 2018, 13:00-14:00

Venue: CBCB Baddiley-Clark Building, large meeting room level 2

Abstract:

The project to generate a Genomic Encyclopedia of Bacteria and Archaea (GEBA) was initiated about one decade ago following a recommendation during an American Academy of Sciences colloquium on Reconciling Microbial Systematics & Genomics in Fall 2006. After a successful pilot project run as collaboration between the DOE Joint Genome Institute (JGI) and the German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures (DSMZ) [1] proved the value of the phylogeny-driven initial approach for phylogeny, taxonomy, description of novel species, but also the binning of metagenomics studies, the project was extended by several large scale sequencing projects [2].

The first of these one thousand genome sequences (each) strong follow-up projects [3,4] reached now the publication phase, while phase II (from individual species to whole genera) and phase III (the genomes of soil and plant-associated and newly described type strains [5]) are currently deep into the genome sequence production stage. GEBA is meanwhile complemented by similarly structured spin-offs, such as the ‘One thousand Actinomycetes’ project run by the same culture collections and sequencing centre, as well as more focused projects such as the ‘Mycobacteria Phylogenomics Project’ that allow taxonomic emendations of unprecedented accuracy. Results and impact of these large scale projects on the description of novel taxa will be reported.