Microbial Ecology Lab
University of North Carolina at Charlotte
microbial oceanography • computational biology • metagenomics
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Our overall goal is to determine how microbes impact ecology and biogeochemistry, with a particular emphasis on novel and under-explored environmental microbes. Microbial engines drive biogeochemical cycles that influence habitability of life on Earth, yet aquatic microbes, and in particular viruses, remain the most abundant yet understudied life-forms on our planet. In the ocean, viruses are on average an order of magnitude more abundant than other microbes, and despite size averaging ~50 nm (micrographs below), viral biomass on our planet is second only to that of prokaryotes (Bacteria + Archaea). By killing cellular hosts and releasing dissolved and particulate organic matter, viruses play a critical role in shaping the ecology, evolution, and sustainability of ecosystems.
My lab uses short- and long-read metagenomics combined with field sampling, experimentation, wet lab, and computational biology to study the diversity and impacts of microbial communities. We bridge microbial ecology with biogeochemistry, and environmental and human health across different environments:
How do microbes impact carbon and nutrient cycling that are critical to sustainability of life on Earth?
What novel diversity and function is waiting to be discovered in microbes from diverse environments?
How do microbes impact environmental and human health?
left: Epifluorescence micrograph of DNA-stained seawater. SYBR gold DNA stain causes virus-like particles (orange) and cell-like particles (blue) to fluoresce, revealing their approximate sizes and abundances at 106/mL for cells and 107/mL - millions in the size of your pinky!
right: Transmission electron micrographs of four morphological types of common prokaryotic viruses. The black bar length indicates 10 nm.
Micrographs by E. Luo. Figure adapted from Luo 2020
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