• Bacterial census, cultivation, and isolation at Cuatro Cienegas - Dr. Larios-Sanz.

• Bacillus yellow creature genome sequenced - CINVESTAV. Gulf of Mexico Bacillus sequenced by Moore.

• Ribotyping of the CCB cultures is proceeding through the help of JSC. Thanks!

• Calothrix sp CC is in culture and we have BEAUTIFUL pictures!! (see above). Thanks, Luisa (Valeria and Maia) for extrodinary effort and research talent.

• December, 2004 - Dr. Maia Larios-Sanz was awarded the highly competitive W. M. Keck Fellowship for her HGT project! Congratulations!

• December, 2004 Rene's CC yellow Bacillus will be sequenced by CINVESTAV!

• November, 2004 Our research in Cuatro Cienegas was featured in Rice News and Rice Research home page.

• October, 2004 - Field sampling on the protected side of CC, photos by T. Lavergne

• August 2004 - Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation to sequence one of our marine Bacillus strains, in the pipeline.

• August 10-15 -Field trip to Cuatro Cienegas, thanks to NAI for their sponsorship! Photo tour.

Rice Education and Public Outreach Portal
Worldwind, Science Cafe, Astrobiology
PI - Dr. Carlos Solis

• Bioinformatics
  Fofanov, Fox, Gogarten, Siefert, Rowher
  
• Experimental Evolution
  Falcon, Larios-Sanz, Travisano
  
• Ecosystem Evolution
  Falcon, Larios-Sanz, Rohwer, Souza, Travisano
  
• Student Training
  All Co-I’s
  
• EPO
  Co-I’s Solis, Lazcano, Siefert, Souza

Links

• Cuatro Cienegas
  
• Phosophorus in Cuatro Cienegas
  
• Geochemistry and the Energy Budget at CCB: Sister project to HGT
  
• Presentations May, CCC ppt, June
  
• Publications (Team, General, Past
  Highlighted Features, Pubs in some
  order but in flux)
  
• HGT
• Numbers
• Siefert Links
• Members

Frequent Recombination in a Saltern Population
of Halorubrum, Papke et al, Science 306:1928-1929,
2004

Sex and recombination are driving forces in the evolution of eukaryotes. Homologous recombination is known to be the dominant process in the divergence of many bacterial species. For Archaea, the only direct evidence bearing on the importance or natural occurrence of homologous recombination is anecdotal
reports of mosaicism from comparative genomic studies. Genetic studies, however, reveal that recombination may play a significant role in generating diversity among members of at least one archaeal group, the haloarchaea. We used multi-locus sequence typing to demonstrate that haloarchaea exchange genetic information promiscuously, exhibiting a degree of linkage equilibrium approaching that of a sexual population.

• Keck Center Undergraduate Research Training Program (URTP) is fast approaching and March 1st is right around the corner. Please encourage any undergraduates that you believe would benefit from this program to:
  
  Learn more at: http://cohesion.rice.edu/centersandinst/gcc/keck_about.cfm?doc_id=3156
  Apply online at: http://cohesion.rice.edu/centersandinst/keckcenter/urtp/ugradapp.cfm
  
  The 2005 URTP will run for ten weeks beginning in June 6 and culminating with a mini-symposia in August 13.
  
  A word about funding: there will be student stipends available of $2000 with an additional $500 to offset some lab costs for the ten-week period. This is available through the Keck Center NLM grant. We will have a total of ten funded slots, five of which can only be filled by US citizens. If you have any questions regarding this funding, please contact Lisa or Jim Briggs (UH) and they'll be happy to clarify the funding opportunities.
  
  Additionally, unfunded positions will be available; these offer an excellent opportunity for qualified undergrads to be actively engaged in the program even when funding was not available to them: last summer we had four students who took advantage of this opportunity and we were very pleased with their commitment, level of involvement and scientific progress.

• Summer Intern for NASA