December 13, 2024
In the Field: UW Oceanographers and undergrads pursue tiny viral prize in Puget Sound waters
Bob Morris (second from right), and members of the September 2023 cruise returning to the Seattle campus aboard the RV Rachel Carson. The third and final cruise studying marine viruses in Puget Sound will be Dec. 16-20.University of Washington
University of Washington oceanographer Robert Morris studies viruses – but not the viruses that get people worried. He studies viruses that infect ocean microorganisms, which are some of the most abundant living things on the planet.
Morris, a UW associate professor of oceanography, previously found that the most common bacteria in the oceans, SAR11, hosts a virus in its DNA. That virus is dormant most of the time, but when and how it erupts could play important roles in ocean ecology and evolution.
Now Morris and a collaborator at the University of California, Los Angeles, are going out with students to collect more of these tiny bacterial hosts and their viral guests to understand how these relationships change depending on the place or the season. They leave Dec. 16 aboard UW School of Oceanography’s small research vessel, the RV Rachel Carson.
UW News asked Morris a few questions about the upcoming cruise, which includes four undergraduate students, as part of an occasional series, “In the Field,” highlighting UW field efforts.
Where are you going, and when?
Robert Morris: Our research cruise will travel from the UW Oceanography dock to the San Juan Islands. This track gives us access to important areas in Puget Sound as well as to the Strait of Juan de Fuca, where open ocean water enters the Puget Sound.
We leave on Monday, Dec. 16 and return Friday, Dec. 20.
Have you visited these waters in the past?
RM: This is our third cruise. The first cruise was in September 2023 and focused on the Puget Sound main basin and Hood Canal. The second cruise was this past July and focused on the main basin, the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and areas around the San Juan Islands. This third cruise will be a repeat of the summer cruise, but at a different time of year to investigate seasonal differences in the viruses that infect marine bacteria.
Bob Morris (second from left) and members of a previous cruise, seen aboard the RV Rachel Carson in Puget Sound in July 2024. On the ship’s deck is the incubation experiment, in which bacteria collected in the ocean are supplied with food and seawater so they multiply. Those cells will later be analyzed.University of Washington
Who is going on the cruise?
RM: I am chief scientist on all three cruises, and Benjamin Knowles, at the University of California, Los Angeles, is co-chief scientist. Each cruise has one additional mentor and four UCLA undergraduates.
For this cruise, the mentor is Jason Graff at Oregon State (past mentors have been UW graduate students Kunmanee Bubphamanee and Dylan Vecchione). For this cruise, the undergraduate students are Grace Donohue, Natalie Falta, Eleanor Gorham and Madeleine Swope.
- Follow updates from the Dec. 16-20 cruise on the RV Rachel Carson’s Instagram account.
- UW’s large research vessel, the RV Thomas G. Thompson, also has an Instagram account. It embarks Dec. 28 from Guam for the UW Oceanography senior thesis cruise, which ends Jan. 11.
What does your team hope to learn from this place?
RM: On the scientific side, we hope to identify spatial and temporal patterns in viruses that infect the oceans’ most abundant bacteria, which is SAR11. More specifically, we collect samples to identify the number and types of SAR11 bacterial cells that have viruses in their genomes and isolate new SAR11 species and the viruses that infect them throughout Puget Sound in summer and winter. We’re also curious how the number of viruses affects infection patterns across our sample sites and seasons.
From an outreach perspective, the field program was designed to allow students from UW and UCLA to collaborate and learn “hands-on” oceanography and to see how research ideas and experiments inform each other, especially when working in interdisciplinary teams and with active mentorship. We expect this field experience to expose more students to oceanographic fieldwork, which may inspire further studies in oceanography or other sciences.
If this is a repeat effort, will this year be different in any way?
RM: The upcoming cruise is the first one that will be conducted in the winter, with the goal of identifying viruses with different infection strategies. For instance, in the winter we expect to find fewer SAR11 cells, but more with viruses hiding out in their genomes.
Briefly, what’s a typical day in the field (if there’s such thing as a typical day)? And what’s something you enjoy about doing this field work?
Dylan Vecchione, a UW Oceanography graduate student, works on an experiment during the September 2023 cruise aboard the UW’s RV Rachel Carson. The third and final cruise studying marine viruses in Puget Sound will be Dec. 16-20.University of Washington
RM: We start the day by collecting samples and setting up an incubation study, where we incubate and grow more bacterial cells. We do four incubation studies on each cruise. The study is designed to multiply bacterial viruses in a way that increases the number of cells that are infected. After the incubation experiment is set up, we visit other sites to collect background data that tells us about the environmental conditions in the surrounding area.
One of the most exciting parts of the day-to-day activities is that you don’t know what the day will bring. Much of the work is outside, so it can be sunny and calm, or rainy and rough. The work gets done either way!
Anything you’d like to add?
RM: We are working on a collaborative manuscript that will include data from the incubation studies and all student participants. UW graduate student Kunmanee (Mak) Bubphamanee, a doctoral student in Earth and space sciences, conducted research in my laboratory for her UW Astrobiology research rotation, and was able to gain field research experience during the second cruise. Two UW graduate students in my lab, Dylan Vecchione and Mike Sadler, will include bacterial culture and genetic sequencing data in future manuscripts.
Lastly, this has been an amazing experience and although many of the students from UCLA have not stayed in oceanography, most have applied to or have gone on to graduate school in science. It has been fantastic interacting with all of the students and seeing them grow into experienced oceanographers over the length of the cruises.
For more information, contact Morris at morrisrm@uw.edu.
