New research from Luo Lab featured in The Microbiologist
New research from the Klein College of Science’s Luo Lab was highlighted in The Microbiologist’s article “Hidden viruses reshape one of Earth’s largest carbon systems, study finds.”
Elaine Luo, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, leads UNC Charlotte’s Microbial Ecology Lab, which studies microbial communities using metagenomics, field sampling, experimentation and computational biology.
In a study published in Nature Communications in April 2026, the team used quantitative stable isotope probing (qSIP) to directly link viruses to the chemoautotrophic microbes they infect. The work shows that viruses play a far more active role in Earth’s carbon cycle than previously understood, targeting rare but highly productive microbes that drive carbon fixation.
“These microbes may be small in numbers, but they are doing an outsized share of the work by fueling the base of the food web,” Luo said. “We found that viruses are specifically targeting them, which has major implications for how carbon moves through these ecosystems.”
By tracing a carbon isotope (¹³C) through both microbial and viral genomes, the researchers overcame a longstanding challenge in environmental microbiology: Identifying which viruses infect which hosts.
The study suggests that viral infection helps regulate these microbial populations and speeds up the release and recycling of carbon back into the environment. At a global scale, viral activity is estimated to recycle about 150 gigatonnes of carbon each year, roughly 25 times the amount moved by the ocean’s biological carbon pump.
“This research changes how we think about carbon cycling in vast marine ecosystems below the Earth’s sunlit layer,” Luo said. “Viruses aren’t just part of the system; they’re actively shaping it.”