TITLE: Research Associate – Environmental Genomics
ACADEMIC INSTITUTION: J. Craig Venter Institute

What is your role in Extreme 2008?
I am a research associate in Dr. Shannon Williamson’s laboratory at the J. Craig Venter Institute.

What will you have to do during the cruise?   As part of Extreme 2008, I will assist in the collection of seawater at depth, which will be filtered to capture marine microbes from the diffuse-flow regions of deep-sea hydrothermal vent environments.

What questions are you trying to answer and why?
Our lab’s primary focus is on the virioplankton communities that inhabit hydrothermal vent areas and how they interact with the microbial community.There are three main hypotheses we will test using data collected from the Extreme 2008 cruise. 

The first is that dsDNA viruses within diffuse-flow environments exhibit high levels of diversity, endemism, and genetic specialization as compared to other marine ecosystems. 
Secondly, we hope to determine if the patterns of host preference differs between the total virioplankton assemblage and the subset of temperate viruses within diffuse-flow environments. 
Finally, we hope to determine if species composition (richness and evenness) of temperate phage reflect that of host populations while the composition of free viral communities do not.

Why is this research important? What are the benefits?
Virioplankton play a critical role in the composition of microbial species in the ocean; moreover, through virus-induced mortality they impact oceanic carbon and nutrient cycling.  Little is known about the virioplankton assemblages of the deep oceans, particularly, the deep-sea hydrothermal vent regions.  It is our goal to use high-throughput metagenome sequencing to discover the diversity and metabolic profiles of virioplankton associated with the diffuse waters of the vents.

What's your background, and what lured you into marine science/education?
I have been interested in biology from an early age, mainly since my seventh-grade science class.  Once at college, I continued in my passion for science and obtained a B.S. in biological sciences with a focus on microbial genetics from Washington State University. It was during this time that I became interested in marine sciences, so I ventured down to San Diego, California, and joined William Fenical’s group at Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO).  I am currently finishing my Ph.D. at SIO while working as a member of the Environmental Genomics group at the J. Craig Venter Institute.  I love playing and working at sea, and I am so grateful that my career path has enabled me to continue doing both.