We are interested in the role of bacteria and their viruses (bacteriophages) in marine ecological processes and the molecular mechanism of their adaptation to the environment. We are using phages that infect the unicellular cyanobacterium Prochlorococcus as a model system. This cyanobacterium is the smallest but the most abundant photosynthetic organism on Earth and it is the dominant primary producer in the oceans. Our ultimate goal is to understand marine ecosystem functioning from the molecular level.

We are trying to answer the following questions:

• How do marine viruses and their host cells interact and coordinate their activities across biological diel cycles?

• What are the mechanistic roles of bacteria and their viruses in driving marine elemental cycling?

• How can insights from marine virus-host interactions  be harnessed for pathogen biocontrol and sustainable fisheries management?