Research

Host-virus interactions

The wide-spread coccolithophore Emiliania huxleyi is a unicellular eukaryotic alga, responsible for the largest oceanic algal blooms covering thousands of square kilometers. Annual E. huxleyi spring blooms are frequently terminated by infection of a specific large dsDNA virus (E. huxleyi virus, EhV). We study the molecular basis for this host-virus arms race.

Algal blooms as hotspots for microbial interactions

Oceanic algal blooms are hotspots for myriad of biotic interactions between co-occurring algal species, viruses, bacteria, grazers and parasites. The blooming algae are also subjected to environmental stressors such as nutrient limitations and rising sea surface temperatures. The main mode of communication within those microbial communities is via exchange of infochemicals, which are information-conveying compounds that can have a functional roles in regulating intercellular signaling, physiology or behavior in the receiving microbes.

Setting sail: hunting for microbial interactions in the ocean

While most of the basic science is performed in the lab and allows for interesting discoveries of the biology and chemical ecology of microbial interactions, we are passionate about testing our findings in the real world, in natural populations in the ocean. To measure microbial interactions within algal blooms, we study specific genetic and metabolic biomarkers that are induced during a myriad of biological interactions.