Credit: Chuck Smallwood, PNNL
A scanning electron micrograph (SEM) of Neocallimastix californiae, a representative of the Neocallimastigomycetes, a clade of the early-diverging fungal lineages that are not well-studied. In Nature Microbiology, a team led by researchers from UC Santa Barbara found for the first time that early lineages of fungi can form complexes of enzymes capable of degrading plant biomass. The team harnessed the capabilities of two U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science User Facilities: the DOE Joint Genome Institute at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; and, the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.