Blair Paul

Assistant Scientist

Blair Paul
Contact Information
Education
Ph.D. Marine Science, University of California Santa Barbara, 2013
B.S. Marine Science, Coastal Carolina University, 2008
MBL Affiliation
Bay Paul Center
Research Area
Evolution
Genomics
Marine Biology
Microbiomes

The聽Paul Lab studies the influence of genetic variation on physical and chemical interactions among microorganisms, with additional interest in microbe-virus dynamics. Current projects examine聽variation in genomes and proteins of bacteria, archaea, and viruses, while considering the ecological importance of diversification in shaping聽microbial partnerships. To this end, we apply a combination of computational, molecular, and geochemical tools to study聽microbial communities and聽viral assemblages from various聽environments.

News and Research Highlights
Selected Publications

V Kivenson,聽BG Paul, and DL Valentine. An ecological basis for dual genetic code expansion in marine deltaproteobacteria.聽bioRxiv听诲辞颈:听10.3389/蹿尘颈肠产.2021.680620

Roux, S,聽BG Paul, SC Bagby, MA Allen, G Attwood, R Cavicchioli, L Chistoserdova, S Hallam, ME Hernandez, M Hess, WT Liu, and EA Eloe-Fadrosh. Ecology and molecular targets of hypermutation in the global microbiome.聽Nature Communications.doi: 10.1038/s41467-021-23402-7

Vallota-Eastman, A, EC Arrington, S Meeken, S Roux, K Dasari, S Rosen, JF Miller, DL Valentine, and聽BG Paul聽(2020) Role of diversity-generating retroelements for regulatory pathway tuning in cyanobacteria.聽BMC Genomics, 21: 1-13. doi:10.1186/s12864-020-07052-5.

Sieber, MK,聽BG Paul, CJ Castelle, P Hu, SG Tringe, DL Valentine, GL Andersen, and JF Banfield (2019) Unusual metabolism and hypervariation in the genome of a Gracilibacteria (BD1-5) from an oil degrading community.聽mBio.聽doi: 10.1128/mBio.02128-19.

Paul, BG, D Burstein, CJ Castelle, S Handa, D Arambula, E Czornyj, BC Thomas, P Ghosh, JF Miller, JF Banfield, and DL Valentine (2017). Retroelement-guided protein diversification abounds in vast lineages of Bacteria and Archaea.聽Nature Microbiology, 2,17045. Doi:10.1038/nmicrobiol.2017.45

Handa, S,聽BG Paul, JF Miller, DL Valentine, and P Ghosh (2016) Conservation of the C-type lectin fold for accommodating massive sequence variation in archaeal diversity-generating retroelements.聽BMC Structural Biology, 16,13. Doi:10.1186/s12900-016-0064-6

Paul, BG, SC Bagby, E Czornyj, D Arambula, S Handa, A Sczyrba, P Ghosh, JF Miller and DL Valentine (2015) Targetted diversity generation by intraterrestrial archaea and archaeal viruses.聽Nature Communications聽6. doi:10.1038/ncomms7585.