Marine microbial chemical ecology
Microorganisms are the engines that both drive Earth’s biogeochemical cycles and control health and disease states in macroorganisms. They are the ultimate ecosystem engineers, whether that ecosystem is a coral reef, a rice plant, or the human gut. Microbes (viruses, archaea, bacteria, and protists) thrive within complex communities and communicate via dissolved chemical cues. Thus, microbial ecology is chemical ecology. Our research seeks to understand the diverse chemical cues that drive interactions among marine microbes and their environment. Current projects include investigations into allelopathic interactions among marine cyanobacteria, identification of chemical cues released by virus-infected phytoplankton, and quantifying chemotactic responses of diverse bacteria and protists to exometabolites released by virocells at different stages of infection.