Main Goals
Microorganisms in the marine environment live in close association with one another. Traditionally in the laboratory, we go to great lengths to maintain pure cell cultures—a very unnatural act—so that we may study phytoplankton in isolation from all other types of organisms. This reductionist approach has shed light on the roles these organisms individually play in the environment; but the behaviors observed as cells adjust to a sterile lab environment are skewed, and simplified, by the absence of interaction with members of the natural communities these organisms have co-evolved with over many millions of years. Our goal is to understand interactions between diatoms and associated heterotrophic bacteria.
Specific topics of interest include:
- Interactions between diatoms and bacteria mediated through vitamins (led by Vaughn Iverson)
- Role of domoic acid in bacterial associations with Pseudo-nitzschia species (led by Micaela S. Parker)