Research Interests

Viral Ecology in the North
The Viral Discovery and Ecology Laboratory (ViDEL) is part of the Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Bioinformatics in the Faculty of Science and Engineeringat Laval University. Our group is particularly interested in the investigation of the diversity and dynamics of viral communities in polar aquatic environments. Our present sampling efforts are focused on the lakes and coastal regions of the Northern coast of Ellesmere Island and Northern Québec. It takes a village to make northern research happen, and we are thus grateful to be members of CEN, GREB, IBIS, and TAKUVIK. https://www.viralecologylab.com/

Education

2007 - 2009
Postdoctoral fellowship
Microbial Oceanography at C-MORE, University of Hawaii at Mānoa, USA

2000 - 2006
Ph.D. Botany
University of British Columbia (UBC), Canada
Characterization of RNA viruses from the coastal waters of British Columbia

1997 - 1999
M.S. Biological Oceanography
Moss Landing Marine Labs, USA
Spatial distribution of marine viruses along a transect from CA to HI.

1989 - 1992
BSc Biology
University of Oregon, USA

Research Experience

Associate Professor (2018 - present)
Viral Discovery and Ecology Lab (ViDEL) / Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Bioinformatics
Université Laval, Canada

Assistant Professor (2013 - 2018)
Viral Discovery and Ecology Lab (ViDEL) / Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Bioinformatics
Université Laval, Canada

Research Affiliate (2010 - 2013)
Department of Oceanography
University of Hawaii at Manoa, USA

Postdoctoral fellowship (2007 - 2009)
Center for Microbial Oceanography: Research and Education (C-MORE)
University of Hawaii at Manoa, USA
http://cmore.soest.hawaii.edu/

Scientific Leadership

Member (2019 - present)
Terrestrial Multidisciplinary distributed Observatories for the Study of Arctic Connections (T-MOSAiC)
International consortium
https://www.t-mosaic.com/

Member (2017 - present)
Tara Expeditions
International consortium
http://oceans.taraexpeditions.org/en/

Member and CSV Université Laval delegate (2017 - present)
Canadian Society for Virology (CSV)
National consortium
https://www.csv-scv.ca/en/

Member (2015 - present)
Institut de Biologie Intégrative et des Systèmes (IBIS)
Université Laval, Canada
http://www.ibis.ulaval.ca/

Member (2015 - present)
International Society for Microbial Ecology (ISME)
International consortium
https://www.isme-microbes.org/

Member (2015 - present)
ArcticNet Network - Changing nutrients and food web health in northern lakes and rivers
Université Laval, Canada
https://arcticnet.ulaval.ca/fr

Member (2014 - present)
Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society (CMOS)
National consortium
https://www.cmos.ca/

Member (2014 - present)
American Society for Virology (ASV)
National consortium
https://www.asv.org/

Member (2013 - present)
Centre d'études Nordiques (CEN)
Université Laval, Canada
http://www.cen.ulaval.ca/

Collaborator (2013 - present)
Québec-Ocean (Q-O)
Université Laval, Canada
http://www.quebec-ocean.ulaval.ca/en/

Committee Member (2011 - pesent)
International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses «Classification of viruses in the family Marnaviridae»
International consortium
https://talk.ictvonline.org/

Member (2007 - present)
American Society of Microbiology
National consortium
https://www.asm.org/

Member (2004 - present)
Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO)
International consortium
https://www.aslo.org/

Awards

2007
Nominee for the Canadian Association for Graduate Studies Distinguished Dissertation Award

Publications

2023

Dominguez‐Huerta, G., Wainaina, J. M., Zayed, A. A., Culley, A. I., Kuhn, J. H., & Sullivan, M. B. (2023). The RNA virosphere: How big and diverse is it? Environmental Microbiology, 25(1), 209–215 https://doi.org/10.1111/1462-2920.16312

Langlois, V., Girard, C., Vincent, W. F., & Culley, A. I. (2023). A Tale of Two Seasons: Distinct Seasonal Viral Communities in a Thermokarst Lake. Microorganisms, 11(2), 428. https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms11020428

2022

Culley, A. I., Thaler, M., Kochtitzky, W., Iqaluk, P., Rapp, J. Z., Rautio, M., Kumagai, M., Copland, L., Vincent, W. F., & Girard, C. (2022). The Thores Lake proglacial system: Remnant stability in the rapidly changing Canadian High Arctic. Arctic Science, as-2022-0023. https://doi.org/10.1139/as-2022-0023

Dominguez-Huerta, G., Zayed, A. A., Wainaina, J. M., Guo, J., Tian, F., Pratama, A. A., Bolduc, B., Mohssen, M., Zablocki, O., Pelletier, E., Delage, E., Alberti, A., Aury, J.-M., Carradec, Q., da Silva, C., Labadie, K., Poulain, J., Tara Oceans Coordinators, Bowler, C., Eveillard, D., Guidi, L., Karsenti, E., Kuhn, J. H., Ogata, H., Wincker, P., Culley, A. I., Chaffron, S., & Sullivan, M. B. (2022). Diversity and ecological footprint of Global Ocean RNA viruses. Science, 376(6598), 1202-1208. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abn6358

Fradette, M.-S., Culley, A. I., & Charette, S. J. (2022). Detection of Cryptosporidium spp. and Giardia spp. in Environmental Water Samples: A Journey into the Past and New Perspectives. Microorganisms, 10(6), 1175. https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms10061175

George, P. B. L., Rossi, F., St-Germain, M.-W., Amato, P., Badard, T., Bergeron, M. G., Boissinot, M., Charette, S. J., Coleman, B. L., Corbeil, J., Culley, A. I., Gaucher, M.-L., Girard, M., Godbout, S., Kirychuk, S. P., Marette, A., McGeer, A., O'Shaughnessy, P. T., Parmley, E. J., … Duchaine, C. (2022). Antimicrobial Resistance in the Environment: Towards Elucidating the Roles of Bioaerosols in Transmission and Detection of Antibacterial Resistance Genes. Antibiotics, 11(7), 974. https://doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics11070974

Kochtitzky, W., Copland, L., Wohlleben, T., Iqaluk, P., Girard, C., Vincent, W. F., & Culley, A. I. (2022). Slow change since the Little Ice Age at a far northern glacier with the potential for system reorganization: Thores Glacier, northern Ellesmere Island, Canada. Arctic Science, as-2022-0012. https://doi.org/10.1139/as-2022-0012

Labbé, M., Thaler, M., Pitot, T. M., Rapp, J. Z., Vincent, W. F., & Culley, A. I. (2022). Climate-Endangered Arctic Epishelf Lake Harbors Viral Assemblages with Distinct Genetic Repertoires. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 88(17), e00228-22. https://doi.org/10.1128/aem.00228-22

Marois, C., Girard, C., Klanten, Y., Vincent, W. F., Culley, A. I., & Antoniades, D. (2022). Local Habitat Filtering Shapes Microbial Community Structure in Four Closely Spaced Lakes in the High Arctic. Frontiers in Microbiology, 13, 779505. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2022.779505

Zayed, A. A., Wainaina, J. M., Dominguez-Huerta, G., Pelletier, E., Guo, J., Mohssen, M., Tian, F., Pratama, A. A., Bolduc, B., Zablocki, O., Cronin, D., Solden, L., Delage, E., Alberti, A., Aury, J.-M., Carradec, Q., da Silva, C., Labadie, K., Poulain, J., Ruscheweyh, H.-J., Salazar, G., Shatoff, E., Tara Oceans Coordinators, Bundschuh, R., Frederick, K., Kubatko, L. S., Chaffron, S., Culley, A. I., … Wincker, P. (2022). Cryptic and abundant marine viruses at the evolutionary origins of Earth's RNA virome. Science, 376(6589), 156-162. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abm5847

2021

Bégin, P. N., Tanabe, Y., Kumagai, M., Culley, A. I., Paquette, M., Sarrazin, D., Uchida, M., & Vincent, W. F. (2021). Extreme warming and regime shift toward amplified variability in a far northern lake. Limnology and Oceanography, 66(S1), S17-S29. https://doi.org/10.1002/lno.11546

Bégin, P. N., Tanabe, Y., Rautio, M., Wauthy, M., Laurion, I., Uchida, M., Culley, A. I., & Vincent, W. F. (2021). Water column gradients beneath the summer ice of a High Arctic freshwater lake as indicators of sensitivity to climate change. Scientific Reports, 11(1), 2868. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-82234-z

Jungblut, A. D., Raymond, F., Dion, M. B., Moineau, S., Mohit, V., Nguyen, G. Q., Déraspe, M., Francovic-Fontaine, É., Lovejoy, C., Culley, A. I., Corbeil, J., & Vincent, W. F. (2021). Genomic diversity and CRISPR-Cas systems in the cyanobacterium Nostoc in the High Arctic. Environmental Microbiology. https://doi.org/10.1111/1462-2920.15481

Lang, A. S., Vlok, M., Culley, A. I., Suttle, C. A., Takao, Y., Tomaru, Y., & Consortium, I. R. (2021). ICTV virus taxonomy profile: Marnaviridae 2021. In Journal of General Virology (Vol. 102, Issue 8). Microbiology Society. https://doi.org/10.1099/jgv.0.001633

Lapointe, A.-M., Klanten, Y., Culley, A. I., Girard, C., & Antoniades, D. (2021, March 3). Structure of microbial communities in lake sediments of the High Arctic. https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-730

Vigneron, A., Cruaud, P., Culley, A. I., Couture, R.-M., Lovejoy, C., & Vincent, W. F. (2021a). Sulfur intermediates as new biogeochemical hubs in aquatic ecosystems. Research Square. https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-276344/v1

Vigneron, A., Cruaud, P., Culley, A. I., Couture, R.-M., Lovejoy, C., & Vincent, W. F. (2021b). Genomic evidence for sulfur intermediates as new biogeochemical hubs in a model aquatic microbial ecosystem. Microbiome, 9(1), 46. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40168-021-00999-x

2020

Bégin, P. N., Rautio, M., Tanabe, Y., Uchida, M., Culley, A. I., & Vincent, W. F. (2020). The littoral zone of polar lakes: Inshore-offshore contrasts in an ice-covered High Arctic lake. Arctic Science, 1-24. https://doi.org/10.1139/as-2020-0026

Cruaud, P., Vigneron, A., Fradette, M., Dorea, C. C., Culley, A. I., Rodriguez, M. J., & Charette, S. J. (2020). Annual bacterial community cycle in a seasonally ice-covered river reflects environmental and climatic conditions. Limnology and Oceanography, 65(S1). https://doi.org/10.1002/lno.11130

Girard, C., Langlois, V., Vigneron, A., Vincent, W. F., & Culley, A. I. (2020). Seasonal Regime Shift in the Viral Communities of a Permafrost Thaw Lake. Viruses, 12(11), 1204. https://doi.org/10.3390/v12111204

Labbé, M., Girard, C., Vincent, W. F., & Culley, A. I. (2020). Extreme Viral Partitioning in a Marine-Derived High Arctic Lake. MSphere, 5(3). https://doi.org/10.1128/mSphere.00334-20

Lévesque, A. V., Thaler, M., Labrie, S. J., Marois, C., Vincent, A. T., Lapointe, A., & Culley, A. I. (2020). Complete Genome Sequences for Two Myoviridae Strains Infecting Cyanobacteria in a Subarctic Lake. Microbiology Resource Announcements, 9(10). https://doi.org/10.1128/MRA.01339-19

Vigneron, A., Cruaud, P., Langlois, V., Lovejoy, C., Culley, A. I., & Vincent, W. F. (2020). Ultra-small and abundant: Candidate phyla radiation bacteria are potential catalysts of carbon transformation in a thermokarst lake ecosystem. Limnology and Oceanography Letters, 5(2), 212-220. https://doi.org/10.1002/lol2.10132

2019

Cruaud, P., Vigneron, A., Fradette, M. S., Dorea, C. C., Culley, A. I., Rodriguez, M. J., & Charette, S. J. (2019). Annual Protist Community Dynamics in a Freshwater Ecosystem Undergoing Contrasted Climatic Conditions: The Saint-Charles River (Canada). Frontiers in Microbiology. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2019.02359

Gregory, A. C., Zayed, A. A., Conceição-Neto, N., Temperton, B., Bolduc, B., Alberti, A., Ardyna, M., Arkhipova, K., Carmichael, M., Cruaud, C., Dimier, C., Domínguez-Huerta, G., Ferland, J., Kandels, S., Liu, Y., Marec, C., Pesant, S., Picheral, M., Pisarev, S., Poulain, J., Tremblay, J.-É., Vik, D., Babin, M., Bowler, C., Culley, A. I.,… Wincker, P. (2019). Marine DNA Viral Macro- and Microdiversity from Pole to Pole. Cell, 177(5), 1109-1123.e14. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2019.03.040

Vigneron, A., Lovejoy, C., Cruaud, P., Kalenitchenko, D., Culley, A. I., & Vincent, W. F. (2019). Contrasting winter versus summer microbial communities and metabolic functions in a permafrost thaw lake. Frontiers in Microbiology. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2019.01656

2018

Brisebois, E., Veillette, M., Dion-Dupont, V., Lavoie, J., Corbeil, J., Culley, A. I., & Duchaine, C. (2018). Human viral pathogens are pervasive in wastewater treatment center aerosols. Journal of Environmental Sciences (China). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jes.2017.07.015

Comte, J., Culley, A. I., Lovejoy, C., & Vincent, W. F. (2018). Microbial connectivity and sorting in a High Arctic watershed. ISME Journal, 12(12), 2988-3000. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41396-018-0236-4

Culley, A. I. (2018). New insight into the RNA aquatic virosphere via viromics. Virus Research, 244, 84-89 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.virusres.2017.11.008

Labbé, M., Raymond, F., Lévesque, A., Thaler, M., Mohit, V., Audet, M., Corbeil, J., & Culley, A. I. (2018). Communities of Phytoplankton Viruses across the Transition Zone of the St. Lawrence Estuary. Viruses, 10(12), 672. https://doi.org/10.3390/v10120672

Lévesque, A., Vincent, W., Comte, J., Lovejoy, C., & Culley, A. I. (2018). Chlorovirus and myovirus diversity in permafrost thaw ponds. Aquatic Microbial Ecology, 82(2), 209-224. https://doi.org/10.3354/ame01893

Vigneron, A., Cruaud, P., Mohit, V., Martineau, M.-J., Culley, A. I., Lovejoy, C., & Vincent, W. F. (2018). Multiple Strategies for Light-Harvesting, Photoprotection, and Carbon Flow in High Latitude Microbial Mats. Frontiers in Microbiology, 9, 2881. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2018.02881

2017

Cruaud, P., Vigneron, A., Fradette, M. S., Charette, S. J., Rodriguez, M. J., Dorea, C. C., & Culley, A. I. (2017). Open the SterivexTMcasing: An easy and effective way to improve DNA extraction yields. Limnology and Oceanography: Methods. https://doi.org/10.1002/lom3.10221

Déraspe, M., Raymond, F., Boisvert, S., Culley, A. I., Roy, P. H., Laviolette, F., & Corbeil, J. (2017). Phenetic Comparison of Prokaryotic Genomes Using k-mers. Molecular Biology and Evolution, 34(10), 2716-2729. https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msx200

Mohit, V., Culley, A. I., Lovejoy, C., Bouchard, F., & Vincent, W. F. (2017). Hidden biofilms in a far northern lake and implications for the changing Arctic. Npj Biofilms and Microbiomes, 3(1). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41522-017-0024-3

Vincent, A. T., Derome, N., Boyle, B., Culley, A. I., & Charette, S. J. (2017). Next-generation sequencing (NGS) in the microbiological world: How to make the most of your money. Journal of Microbiological Methods, 138, 60-71. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mimet.2016.02.016

2016

Miranda, J. A., Culley, A. I., Schvarcz, C. R., & Steward, G. F. (2016). RNA viruses as major contributors to Antarctic virioplankton. Environmental Microbiology. https://doi.org/10.1111/1462-2920.13291

Trudel, M. V., Vincent, A. T., Attéré, S. A., Labbé, M., Derome, N., Culley, A. I., & Charette, S. J. (2016). Diversity of antibiotic-resistance genes in Canadian isolates of Aeromonas salmonicida subsp. salmonicida: Dominance of pSN254b and discovery of pAsa8. Scientific Reports. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep35617