Our Research
The oceans are home to extraordinary levels of microbial diversity, much of which has yet to be characterized. The focus of our research is to address fundamental questions about the diversity and distributions of specific groups of bacteria in the marine environment. These studies frequently target taxa such as the actinomycetes, which are capable of producing biologically active secondary metabolites. The compounds produced by these bacteria represent an important resource for drug discovery and provide opportunities to explore the functional roles of secondary metabolites in marine systems. Our studies employ molecular as well as culture-dependent techniques and include the analysis of genome sequences to explore the ecology and evolution of marine bacteria. We apply phylogenetic techniques to understand the relationships among bacteria and to trace the evolutionary history of the genes they maintain, many of which are subject to horizontal gene transfer. In the case of secondary metabolism, we believe the acquisition of pathways responsible for the production of biologically active molecules provides a rapid method to outcompete other members of the community or expand to a new environmental niche. We are only beginning to understand the implications of these processes, but believe they play a critical role in the ecology and evolution of the bacteria we are studying. We are also keenly interested in developing improved, sequence-based approaches to natural product discovery and believe that next generation sequencing will open the door to the discovery of vast numbers of new secondary metabolites.