Since microorganisms are the predominant form of life on the planet in terms of their diversity, total mass and absolute numbers, and because many of their genomes are smaller than ten million bases, it is no surprise that the majority of the genomes sequenced to date are from microbes. Nearly 100 microbial genomes have been completely sequenced to date and more than 300 are partially sequenced or in the offing. These genomes represent a treasure trove of information to study such topics as host/parasite (symbiont) interactions, evolution of protein function, and genomic evolution.

Nearly all members of the Department of Microbiology in College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) and microbiologists in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology in the College of Veterinary Medicine (CVM) are applying genomics technologies to their research. Other departments in Ithaca with members involved in microbial genomics include Plant Pathology, Food Science, Crops and Soils, and Animal Science in CALS, Chemistry and Chemical Biology in the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS), Molecular Biology and Genetics in CALS and CAS, Chemical Engineering, and Civil and Environmental Engineering in the College of Engineering, and Earth and Atmospheric Sciences in both Engineering and CALS. Among the topics being studied are biology of pathogenesis of the animal pathogens Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Escherichia coli, Listeria monocytogenes, and Chlamydia, and the plant pathogens Pseudomonas syringae and Agrobacterium tumefaciens; applying array technology to study biofilm formation in E. coli and response to oxidative stress in Bacillus subtilis; DNA repair and nuclear mitochondrial genomic interactions in Saccharomyces, bacteria useful for bioremediation such as Dehalococcoides ethenogenes; photosynthetic organisms such as Rhodobacter sphaeroides; and development of gigantism in Epulopiscium. Because of microorganisms' important roles in biogeochemical cycles and because genomics helps explain genotype/phenotype interactions, there is a strong link between microbial genomics and the Biogeochemistry and Biocomplexity Initiative at Cornell.

Hires made in microbial genomics at Cornell include Marci Scidmore,Department of Microbiology and Immunology, studying Chlamydial pathogenesis; Helene Marquis, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, studying Listeria pathogenesis; and Joseph Peters, Department of Microbiology, studying recombination and genome evolution in E. coli.

The past hires have been in our mainstream microbiology departments. In the future, we hope to continually build a community that cuts across traditional field boundaries by including many of the departments with more applied missions that involve microorganisms. A soil microbial genomicist is presently being sought by the Crops and Soils Department with the idea of tapping into the enormous genomic diversity of soil microorganisms. The Department of Chemical Engineering is searching in the area of genomics of bacterial physiology. Future needs include a fungal genomicist in the Department of Plant Pathology, a genomicist studying microorganisms important to food microbiology in the Department of Food Science, and researchers in the areas of genomics of host disease resistance (joint with Mammalian Genomics) in CVM and genomics of extremophilic microorganisms in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences.