Dana E. Hunt

Research Themes

Environmental Health Engineering

Bio

My research focus is on understanding the ecology of microbes through examination of their genes and lifestyles. Bacteria are the most diverse organisms on earth and play a pivotal role in planetary cycling of nutrients and energy. Yet, we have a poor understanding of the factors that drive their diversity and dynamics in the environment. The lab's emphasis is on studying bacterial interactions with the environment at the appropriate temporal and spatial scale including the effect of temperature changes on bacterial populations and bacterial interactions with other organisms. Another area of active research is the response and adaptation of bacteria to emerging pollutants such as antibiotics and nanoparticles.

Education

• Ph.D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2008

Positions

• Associate Professor of Microbial Ecology
• Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Courses Taught

• UPE 701: Ecological Perspectives: Evolution to Ecosystems
• MARSCI 393A: Research Independent Study
• MARSCI 321A: Coastal Watershed Science and Policy
• MARSCI 309A: Oceans in Human and Environmental Health
• MARSCI 308A: Oceans in Human and Environmental Health
• GLHLTH 309A: Oceans in Human and Environmental Health
• GLHLTH 308A: Oceans in Human and Environmental Health
• EVANTH 741: Ecological Perspectives: Evolution to Ecosystems
• ENVIRON 841: Ecological Perspectives: Evolution to Ecosystems
• ENVIRON 822A: Coastal Watershed and Policy
• ENVIRON 729A: Oceans in Human and Environmental Health
• ENVIRON 593: Independent Studies and Projects
• ENVIRON 393A: Research Independent Study
• ENVIRON 321A: Coastal Watershed Science and Policy
• ENVIRON 309A: Oceans in Human and Environmental Health
• ENVIRON 308A: Oceans in Human and Environmental Health
• BIOLOGY 841: Ecological Perspectives: Evolution to Ecosystems
• BIOLOGY 319A: Coastal Watershed Science and Policy
• BIOLOGY 309A: Oceans in Human and Environmental Health
• BIOLOGY 308A: Oceans in Human and Environmental Health

Publications

• Li J, Xie N, Liu X, Bai M, Hunt DE, Wang G. Oxygen levels differentially attenuate the structure and diversity of microbial communities in the oceanic oxygen minimal zones. The Science of the total environment. 2024 Oct;948:174934.
• Wang Z, Bergemann CM, Simonin M, Avellan A, Kiburi P, Hunt DE. Interactions shape aquatic microbiome responses to Cu and Au nanoparticle treatments in wetland manipulation experiments. Environmental research. 2024 Jul;252(Pt 3):118603.
• Gray PC, Savelyev I, Cassar N, Lévy M, Boss E, Lehahn Y, et al. Evidence for Kilometer-Scale Biophysical Features at the Gulf Stream Front. Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans. 2024 Mar 1;129(3).
• Hunt D, Dewar A, Dal Molin F, Willey N. Enhancing radiological monitoring of ¹³⁷Cs in coastal environments using taxonomic signals in brown seaweeds. Journal of environmental radioactivity. 2023 Nov;268–269:107261.
• Pavlopoulos GA, Baltoumas FA, Liu S, Selvitopi O, Camargo AP, Nayfach S, et al. Unraveling the functional dark matter through global metagenomics. Nature. 2023 Oct;622(7983):594–602.
• Gray PC, Gronniger J, Sayvelev I, Dale J, Niebergall A, Cassar N, et al. The Impact of Gulf Stream Frontal Eddies on Ecology and Biogeochemistry near Cape Hatteras. bioRxiv. 2023.
• Gronniger JL, Gray PC, Niebergall AK, Johnson ZI, Hunt DE. A Gulf Stream frontal eddy harbors a distinct microbiome compared to adjacent waters. PloS one. 2023 Jan;18(11):e0293334.
• Gronniger JL, Wang Z, Brandt GR, Ward CS, Tsementzi D, Mu H, et al. Rapid changes in coastal ocean microbiomes uncoupled with shifts in environmental variables. Environmental microbiology. 2022 Sep;24(9):4167–77.
• Fremin BJ, Bhatt AS, Kyrpides NC, Global Phage Small Open Reading Frame (GP-SmORF) Consortium. Thousands of small, novel genes predicted in global phage genomes. Cell reports. 2022 Jun;39(12):110984.
• Xie N, Bai M, Liu L, Li J, He Y, Collier JL, et al. Patchy Blooms and Multifarious Ecotypes of Labyrinthulomycetes Protists and Their Implication in Vertical Carbon Export in the Pelagic Eastern Indian Ocean. Microbiology spectrum. 2022 Jun;10(3):e0014422.
• Bai M, Xie N, He Y, Li J, Collier JL, Hunt DE, et al. Vertical community patterns of Labyrinthulomycetes protists reveal their potential importance in the oceanic biological pump. Environmental microbiology. 2022 Apr;24(4):1703–13.
• Xie N, Wang Z, Hunt DE, Johnson ZI, He Y, Wang G. Niche Partitioning of Labyrinthulomycete Protists Across Sharp Coastal Gradients and Their Putative Relationships With Bacteria and Fungi. Frontiers in microbiology. 2022 Jan;13:906864.
• Duan Y, Xie N, Wang Z, Johnson ZI, Hunt DE, Wang G. Patchy Distributions and Distinct Niche Partitioning of Mycoplankton Populations across a Nearshore to Open Ocean Gradient. Microbiology spectrum. 2021 Dec;9(3):e0147021.
• Ahern OM, Whittaker KA, Williams TC, Hunt DE, Rynearson TA. Host genotype structures the microbiome of a globally dispersed marine phytoplankton. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 2021 Nov;118(48):e2105207118.
• Nayfach S, Roux S, Seshadri R, Udwary D, Varghese N, Schulz F, et al. A genomic catalog of Earth's microbiomes. Nature biotechnology. 2021 Apr;39(4):499–509.
• Nayfach S, Roux S, Seshadri R, Udwary D, Varghese N, Schulz F, et al. Author Correction: A genomic catalog of Earth's microbiomes. Nature biotechnology. 2021 Apr;39(4):521.
• Xie N, Hunt DE, Johnson ZI, He Y, Wang G. Annual Partitioning Patterns of Labyrinthulomycetes Protists Reveal Their Multifaceted Role in Marine Microbial Food Webs. Applied and environmental microbiology. 2021 Jan;87(2):e01652–e01620.
• Wang Z, Tsementzi D, Williams TC, Juarez DL, Blinebry SK, Garcia NS, et al. Environmental stability impacts the differential sensitivity of marine microbiomes to increases in temperature and acidity. The ISME journal. 2021 Jan;15(1):19–28.
• Loftus SE, Hunt DE, Johnson ZI. Reused cultivation water from a self-inhibiting alga does not inhibit other algae but alters their microbiomes. Algal Research. 2020 Oct 1;51.
• Wang Z, Juarez DL, Pan J-F, Blinebry SK, Gronniger J, Clark JS, et al. Microbial communities across nearshore to offshore coastal transects are primarily shaped by distance and temperature. Environmental microbiology. 2019 Oct;21(10):3862–72.
• Ward CS, Pan J-F, Colman BP, Wang Z, Gwin CA, Williams TC, et al. Conserved Microbial Toxicity Responses for Acute and Chronic Silver Nanoparticle Treatments in Wetland Mesocosms. Environmental science & technology. 2019 Mar;53(6):3268–76.
• Duan Y, Xie N, Song Z, Ward CS, Yung C-M, Hunt DE, et al. A High-Resolution Time Series Reveals Distinct Seasonal Patterns of Planktonic Fungi at a Temperate Coastal Ocean Site (Beaufort, North Carolina, USA). Applied and environmental microbiology. 2018 Nov;84(21):e00967–e00918.
• Zhang T, Pan J-F, Hunt DE, Chen M, Wang B. Organic matter modifies biochemical but not most behavioral responses of the clam Ruditapes philippinarum to nanosilver exposure. Marine environmental research. 2018 Feb;133:105–13.
• Ward CS, Yung C-M, Davis KM, Blinebry SK, Williams TC, Johnson ZI, et al. Annual community patterns are driven by seasonal switching between closely related marine bacteria. The ISME journal. 2017 Nov;11(11):2637.
• Ward CS, Yung C-M, Davis KM, Blinebry SK, Williams TC, Johnson ZI, et al. Annual community patterns are driven by seasonal switching between closely related marine bacteria. The ISME journal. 2017 Jun;11(6):1412–22.
• Garcia NS, Yung C-M, Davis KM, Rynearson T, Hunt DE. Draft Genome Sequences of Three Bacterial Isolates from Cultures of the Marine Diatom Thalassiosira rotula. Genome announcements. 2017 May;5(18):e00316–7.
• McMurray SE, Johnson ZI, Hunt DE, Pawlik JR, Finelli CM. Selective feeding by the giant barrel sponge enhances foraging efficiency. Limnology and Oceanography. 2016 Jul 1;61(4):1271–86.
• Yung C-M, Ward CS, Davis KM, Johnson ZI, Hunt DE. Insensitivity of Diverse and Temporally Variable Particle-Associated Microbial Communities to Bulk Seawater Environmental Parameters. Applied and environmental microbiology. 2016 Jun;82(11):3431–7.
• Yung C-M, Vereen MK, Herbert A, Davis KM, Yang J, Kantorowska A, et al. Thermally adaptive tradeoffs in closely related marine bacterial strains. Environmental microbiology. 2015 Jul;17(7):2421–9.
• Hunt DE, Ward CS. A network-based approach to disturbance transmission through microbial interactions. Frontiers in microbiology. 2015 Jan;6:1182.
• Chae S-R, Hunt DE, Ikuma K, Yang S, Cho J, Gunsch CK, et al. Aging of fullerene C₆₀ nanoparticle suspensions in the presence of microbes. Water research. 2014 Nov;65:282–9.
• Kirchberger PC, Turnsek M, Hunt DE, Haley BJ, Colwell RR, Polz MF, et al. Vibrio metoecus sp. nov., a close relative of Vibrio cholerae isolated from coastal brackish ponds and clinical specimens. International journal of systematic and evolutionary microbiology. 2014 Sep;64(Pt 9):3208–14.
• Colman BP, Espinasse B, Richardson CJ, Matson CW, Lowry GV, Hunt DE, et al. Emerging contaminant or an old toxin in disguise? Silver nanoparticle impacts on ecosystems. Environmental science & technology. 2014 May;48(9):5229–36.
• Johnson ZI, Wheeler BJ, Blinebry SK, Carlson CM, Ward CS, Hunt DE. Dramatic variability of the carbonate system at a temperate coastal ocean site (Beaufort, North Carolina, USA) is regulated by physical and biogeochemical processes on multiple timescales. PloS one. 2013 Jan;8(12):e85117.
• Hunt DE, Lin Y, Church MJ, Karl DM, Tringe SG, Izzo LK, et al. Relationship between abundance and specific activity of bacterioplankton in open ocean surface waters. Applied and environmental microbiology. 2013 Jan;79(1):177–84.
• Boucher Y, Cordero OX, Takemura A, Hunt DE, Schliep K, Bapteste E, et al. Local mobile gene pools rapidly cross species boundaries to create endemicity within global Vibrio cholerae populations. mBio. 2011 Jan;2(2):e00335–e00310.
• Hunt DE, David LA, Gevers D, Preheim SP, Alm EJ, Polz MF. Resource partitioning and sympatric differentiation among closely related bacterioplankton. Science. 2008 May 23;320(5879):1081–5.
• Stocker R, Seymour JR, Samadani A, Hunt DE, Polz MF. Rapid chemotactic response enables marine bacteria to exploit ephemeral microscale nutrient patches. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 2008 Mar;105(11):4209–14.
• Hunt DE, Gevers D, Vahora NM, Polz MF. Conservation of the chitin utilization pathway in the Vibrionaceae. Applied and environmental microbiology. 2008 Jan;74(1):44–51.
• Polz MF, Hunt DE, Preheim SP, Weinreich DM. Patterns and mechanisms of genetic and phenotypic differentiation in marine microbes. Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London Series B, Biological sciences. 2006 Nov;361(1475):2009–21.
• Hunt DE, Klepac-Ceraj V, Acinas SG, Gautier C, Bertilsson S, Polz MF. Evaluation of 23S rRNA PCR primers for use in phylogenetic studies of bacterial diversity. Applied and environmental microbiology. 2006 Mar;72(3):2221–5.
• Thompson JR, Pacocha S, Pharino C, Klepac-Ceraj V, Hunt DE, Benoit J, et al. Genotypic diversity within a natural coastal bacterioplankton population. Science (New York, NY). 2005 Feb;307(5713):1311–3.
• Acinas SG, Klepac-Ceraj V, Hunt DE, Pharino C, Ceraj I, Distel DL, et al. Fine-scale phylogenetic architecture of a complex bacterial community. Nature. 2004 Jul;430(6999):551–4.
• Polz MF, Bertilsson S, Acinas SG, Hunt D. A(r)Ray of hope in analysis of the function and diversity of microbial communities. The Biological bulletin. 2003 Apr;204(2):196–9.
• Polz MF, Bertilson S, Acinas SG, Hunt D. A(r)ray of hope in diversity analysis of microbial function and communities. Biological Bulletin. 2003;204(2):196–9.