MicrobeWorld

Improved DNA sequencing technology is making reading genomes faster and cheaper every day. But modifying genes in microbes and other organisms still requires slow and painstaking effort. Now, researchers report that they've come up with a new way to modify the genomes of billions of microbes simultaneously and then finger the ones with the most interesting changes. Because the technique will likely work with most types of genomes, it could turbocharge efforts to engineer microbes to produce everything from novel therapeutic drugs to vast quantities of biofuels.