weLCOME TO THE YOSHIMURA LAB

The Yoshimura Lab at James Madison University is interested in the genomics, ecology, and physiology of microbes in marine and freshwater habitats. We study all of the smallest organisms, from viruses to bacteria and archaea to eukaryotes to understand their ecology and function and how microbial communities are responding to a changing world.

Marine Microbial Ecology

New microbial methods have given us the ability to discern between very closely related microbes. The Yoshimura Lab is using marker gene sequences to trace the movement and dispersal of marine microbes across biogeochemical gradients to gain understanding about how microbial communities develop in different marine habitats.

Algal Viruses and Climate Change

Aquatic wetlands are home to many different algal and cyanobacterial species. These environments store much of the world's carbon, yet are under threat due to climate change. The Yoshimura Lab is investigating how changing temperatures will affect the viruses that infect these algae and cyanobacteria to gain a better understanding of how warming temperatures will affect carbon cycling in these important environments.

Metagenome-Informed Culturing

A vast majority of microbes have no cultured representatives in the scientific database. Whether these organisms simply cannot be grown in a lab, or if we just have yet to figure out how remains a question for many. The Yoshimura Lab is using metagenomic datasets to inform our kowledge about the metabolic requirements for some of these uncultured microbes with the hopes of ultimately adding new cultured representatives so that we may learn more about their physiology and metabolisms.