About
Biographies
Research Interests and Accomplishments
Dr. Shannon Williamson is the Director of Environmental Virology and an Investigator in the Department of Microbial and Environmental Genomics at JCVI. Dr. Williamson is a marine viral ecologist by training. Dr. Williamson’s research group uses metagenomic, molecular and microscopy-based techniques to investigate the dynamics between viruses and their microbial hosts in a variety of ecosystems including estuaries, the open ocean, the deep ocean and hydrothermal vents, soil and air.
Dr. Williamson’s research interests include characterizing and understanding the consequences of specific virus-host interactions, environmental virus diversity, virus-mediated horizontal gene transfer, and the co-evolution of viruses and microbial hosts. Dr. Williamson led the initial effort to characterize the viral component of microbial samples collected as part of the Global Ocean Sampling Expedition and she continues to lead the viral analysis efforts for this project.
Prior to joining JCVI in 2005, Dr. Williamson was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Delaware in the lab of Dr. Eric Wommack. Dr. Williamson received her Ph.D. in Marine Science from the University of South Florida, College of Marine Science in St. Petersburg in 2003 under the direction of Dr. John H. Paul. Dr. Williamson majored in Marine Biology at the University of North Carolina in Wilmington and received her bachelor of science degree in 1996.
Select Publications
Williamson, S. J., Cary, S. C., et al.
Lysogenic virus-host interactions predominate at deep-sea diffuse-flow hydrothermal vents
Isme J. 2008 Aug 21;
Williamson, S. J., Rusch, D. B., et al.
The Sorcerer II Global Ocean Sampling Expedition: Metagenomic Characterization of Viruses within Aquatic Microbial Samples
PLoS ONE. 2008 Jan 23; 3(1): e1456.
Sharon, I., Tzahor, S., et al.
Viral photosynthetic reaction center genes and transcripts in the marine environment
Isme J. 2007 Oct 01; 1(6): 492-501.
Rusch, D. B., Halpern, A. L., et al.
The Sorcerer II Global Ocean Sampling Expedition: Northwest Atlantic through Eastern Tropical Pacific
PLoS Biol. 2007 Mar 13; 5(3): e77.
Yooseph, S., Sutton, G., et al.
The Sorcerer II Global Ocean Sampling Expedition: Expanding the Universe of Protein Families
PLoS Biol. 2007 Mar 13; 5(3): e16.
Williamson, S. J., Paul, J. H.
Environmental factors that influence the transition from lysogenic to lytic existence in the phiHSIC/Listonella pelagia marine phage-host system
Microb Ecol. 2006 Aug 01; 52(2): 217-25.
Paul, J. H., Williamson, S. J., et al.
Complete genome sequence of phiHSIC, a pseudotemperate marine phage of Listonella pelagia
Appl Environ Microbiol. 2005 Jun 01; 71(6): 3311-20.