the floge lab

Marine Microbial Ecology

Sheri floge

Assistant Professor

Department of Biology, Wake Forest University, Winston Hall Room 011
floges@wfu.edu

Welcome to the Floge LAB

Our research focuses on marine microbial ecology in the context of ocean biogeochemical cycles. We study how microbes interact with one another and their environment, the chemical reactions that mediate such interactions, and the resulting impact on ecosystem scale carbon cycling. We are particularly interested in how marine viruses manipulate host cellular metabolism and consequent changes in microbial interactions and ecosystem function.

About Us
Publications
Recent News
  • Stehnach, M. R., Henshaw, R. J., Floge, S. A. and Guasto, J. S. (2024). Multiplexed Microfluidic Platform for Parallel Bacterial Chemotaxis Assays. Bio-protocol 14(17): e5062. DOI: 10.21769/BioProtoc.5062.
  • Gray, P. C., Savelyev, I., Cassar, N., Lévy, M., Boss, E., Lehahn, Y., et al. (2024). Evidence for kilometer-scale biophysical features at the Gulf Stream front. Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, 129, e2023JC020526. https://doi.org/10.1029/2023JC020526
  • Stehnach, M. R., R. J. Henshaw, S. A. Floge and J. A. Guasto. 2023. Multiplexed microfluidic screening of bacterial chemotaxis. eLife12:e85348.
  • Howard-Varona, C., Roux, S., Bowen, B.P., Silva, L.P., Lau, R., Schwenck, S.M., Schwartz, S., Woyke, T. Northen, T., Sullivan, M.B. and Floge, S.A., 2022. Protist impacts on marine cyanovirocell metabolism. ISME Communications, 2(1), pp.1-14.
  • Zengler, K., K. Hofmockel, N. S. Baliga, S. W. Behie, H. C. Bernstein, J. B. Brown, J. R. Dinneny, S. A. Floge, S. P. Forry, M. Hess, S. A. Jackson, C. Jansson, S. R. Lindemann, J. Pett-Ridge, C. Maranas, E. A. Shank, O. S. Venturelli, M. D. Wallenstein, and T. Northen. 2019. EcoFABs: Advancing microbiome science through standardized fabricated ecosystems. Nature Methods (16) 567-571.
  • Lawrence, S. A., S. A. Floge, J. E. Davy, S. K. Davy, and W. H. Wilson. 2017. Exploratory analysis of Symbiodinium transcriptomes reveals potential latent infection by large dsDNA viruses. Environmental Microbiology (19) 3909-3919.
  • Vermont, A. I., J. Martínez Martínez, J. D. Waller, I. C. Gilg, A. H. Leavitt, S. A. Floge, S. D. Archer, W. H. Wilson, and D. M. Fields. 2016. Virus infection of Emiliania huxleyi deters grazing by the copepod Acartia tonsa. Journal of Plankton Research (38) 1194-1205.
  • Gilg. I. C., S. D. Archer, S. A. Floge, D. M. Fields, A. I. Vermont, A. H. Leavitt, W. H. Wilson, and J. Martínez Martínez. 2016. Differential gene expression is tied to photochemical efficiency reduction in virally infected Emiliania huxleyi. Marine Ecology Progress Series (555) 13-27.
View complete list

January 2023: Reza joins the lab as a PhD student.

February 2024: Dr Floge and Samuel presented a talk and a poster respectively at the Ocean sciences Meeting ’24 in New Orleans.

August 2023: Archana Cherukat joins the lab as a PhD student.

July 2023: eLife publication describing development of a novel multiplexed chemotaxis device for high throughput screening of bacterial chemotactic responses to chemostimulants.

June 2023: Jonathan’s MS thesis research “Virus mediated release of chemical cues attracts chemotactic bacteria to Synechococcus” is presented at the Ocean Carbon and Biogeochemistry Summer Workshop. 

Publications
Stehnach, M. R., Henshaw, R. J., Floge, S. A. and Guasto, J. S. (2024). Multiplexed Microfluidic Platform for Parallel Bacterial Chemotaxis Assays. Bio-protocol 14(17): e5062. DOI: 10.21769/BioProtoc.5062.
Stehnach, M. R., R. J. Henshaw, S. A. Floge and J. A. Guasto. 2023. Multiplexed microfluidic screening of bacterial chemotaxis. eLife12:e85348.
Howard-Varona, C., Roux, S., Bowen, B.P., Silva, L.P., Lau, R., Schwenck, S.M., Schwartz, S., Woyke, T. Northen, T., Sullivan, M.B. and Floge, S.A., 2022. Protist impacts on marine cyanovirocell metabolism. ISME Communications, 2(1), pp.1-14.
Zengler, K., K. Hofmockel, N. S. Baliga, S. W. Behie, H. C. Bernstein, J. B. Brown, J. R. Dinneny, S. A. Floge, S. P. Forry, M. Hess, S. A. Jackson, C. Jansson, S. R. Lindemann, J. Pett-Ridge, C. Maranas, E. A. Shank, O. S. Venturelli, M. D. Wallenstein, and T. Northen. 2019. EcoFABs: Advancing microbiome science through standardized fabricated ecosystems. Nature Methods (16) 567-571.
Lawrence, S. A., S. A. Floge, J. E. Davy, S. K. Davy, and W. H. Wilson. 2017. Exploratory analysis of Symbiodinium transcriptomes reveals potential latent infection by large dsDNA viruses. Environmental Microbiology (19) 3909-3919.
Vermont, A. I., J. Martínez Martínez, J. D. Waller, I. C. Gilg, A. H. Leavitt, S. A. Floge, S. D. Archer, W. H. Wilson, and D. M. Fields. 2016. Virus infection of Emiliania huxleyi deters grazing by the copepod Acartia tonsa. Journal of Plankton Research (38) 1194-1205.
Gilg. I. C., S. D. Archer, S. A. Floge, D. M. Fields, A. I. Vermont, A. H. Leavitt, W. H. Wilson, and J. Martínez Martínez. 2016. Differential gene expression is tied to photochemical efficiency reduction in virally infected Emiliania huxleyi. Marine Ecology Progress Series (555) 13-27.
Recent News

January 2024: Reza joins the lab as a PhD student.

August 2023: Archana Cherukat joins the lab as a PhD student.

July 2023: eLife publication describing development of a novel multiplexed chemotaxis device for high throughput screening of bacterial chemotactic responses to chemostimulants.

June 2023: Jonathan’s MS thesis research “Virus mediated release of chemical cues attracts chemotactic bacteria to Synechococcus” is presented at the Ocean Carbon and Biogeochemistry Summer Workshop.


May 2023: Congratulations to Jonathan Moon on the successful defense of his thesis “Marine heterotrophic bacterial chemotaxis to phage-infected Synechococcus” and graduation from the Wake Forest University Biology Master of Science Program. We will miss you Jonathan!

May 2023: Congratulations to Aubrey Heath on the completion of her Bachelor of Science in Biology! We will miss you Aubrey!