- E-mailrunar.stokke@uib.no
- Phone+47 55 58 38 33
- Visitor AddressThormøhlens gate 53 A/B5006 Bergen
- Postal AddressPostboks 78035020 Bergen
My research has a strong focus on deep-sea hydrothermal vent ecosystems.
In spite of the recent technological and analytical advancement in the field of hydrothermal vent research and metagenomics, fundamental and systematic knowledge on the biodiversity of microbial life and their functional role in the unique deep sea vent environments can still be considered as in its infancy and in the exploratory phase. This hampers our ability to evaluate the global ecological role of the hydrothermal vent biota. Since genomic knowledge is still missing for most of the uncultivated lineages in hydrothermal vents, there is a comprehensive knowledge need and potential to discover new microbial lineages with novel and primordial metabolisms, as well as new metabolic inter-dependencies and species interactions. At present, knowledge is also lacking on the encoded capacity of hydrothermal vent microorganisms to produce bioactive compounds to be used in communications between and across trophic levels in the ecosystem, and in turn represent compounds for human benefit.
Integrated studies combining genome-centric metagenomics with metatrascriptomics and high-resolution microscopy is central in my research to infer potential functions of uncultured novel hydrothermal vent microbial lineages, and identifying microbial metabolic interdependencies and co-operations.
- (2023). Potential for homoacetogenesis via the Wood–Ljungdahl pathway in Korarchaeia lineages from marine hydrothermal vents. Environmental Microbiology Reports.
- (2023). Activation mechanism and activity of globupain, a thermostable C11 protease from the Arctic Mid-Ocean Ridge hydrothermal system.
- (2023). Activation mechanism and activity of globupain, a thermostable C11 protease from the Arctic Mid-Ocean Ridge hydrothermal system. Frontiers in Microbiology.
- (2022). Sheath-forming Zetaproteobacteria abundant in black smoker chimney mats at the newly discovered Fåvne hydrothermal vent field.
- (2022). Sheath-forming Zetaproteobacteria abundant in black smoker chimney mats at the newly discovered Fåvne hydrothermal vent field.
- (2022). Revealing the chitinolytic potential of microbial communities in Arctic deep-sea hydrothermal sediments. .
- (2022). Interpretation of microbial food webs from metagenomic data in deep-sea hydrothermal vents across the Arctic Mid-Ocean Ridge.
More information in national current research information system (CRIStin)
Current and previous projects
PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR:
2021-2024 DeepSeaQuence; Uncovering the metabolic secrets and capacity of Arctic deep-sea hydrothermal vent microbiomes. Research Council of Norway, FRINATEK Researcher Project
PROJECT COLLABORATOR:
2021 - UiB Centre for Deep-Sea Research - Trond Mohn Foundation
2021 - 2024 Eco-Safe Ridge Mining: environmental risk studies towards sustainable deep-sea mining on the Mid-Ocean Ridge in Norway
2021 - 2023 RAS-TOOLS: A microbial toolbox for RAS production and innovation
2017-2021: KG Jebsen centre for Deep-Sea Research (leading WP6; Biodiscovery and Bioprospecting)
Key qualifications:
- Advanced Bioinformatics
- Proteomics and Mass spectrometry
- Metagenomics, metaproteomics and metatranscriptomics
- Genome assembly and annotation
- Cultivations of extremophilic microorganisms
- Protein expression and purification
- Protein chemistry and structural biology
- Protein stability
Current PhD and master students (main or co- supervisor)
Petra Hribovsek (UiB) - Investigating the ecology, evolution and metabolism of novel deep-sea hydrothermal lineages.
Francesca Vulcano (UiB) - Short chain hydrocarbon degraders in hydrothermal vents systems on the Arctic Mid-Ocean Ridge.
Victora Røyseth (UiB) - Isolation and enzyme characterization of proteolytic hydrothermal vent microorganisms
Emily Maria Denny (UiB) - Shaping of hydrothermal microbiomes in response to energy availability
Graduated
PhD Hasan Arsin - Sequence-based enzyme discovery from marine microbial biodiversity: Multiple approaches for the heterologous expression of genes in Escherichia coli - 2021
PhD Anders Schouw - Isolation and genome analysis of Vallitalea guaymasensis L81; energy metabolism, syntrophy and applications - 2018
PhD Juliane Wissuwa - The Arctic mid-Ocean Ridge Vent Fields - A valuable Resource for Marine Bioprospecting? - 2016
PhD William P. Hocking - Energy conservation mechnisms in the sulfate respiring archaeon Archaeoglobus fulgidus VC16-assessed by transcriptome analyses and comparative genomics. - 2015
Msc. Sondre Olai Spjeld - Metagenomics-based discovery of novel carbohydrate degrading enzymes from deep-sea hydrothermal in situ enrichments; expression, purification and characterization - 2021
MSc. Sepideh Mostafavi - Metagenome-based analysis of the functional potential of a marine sediment community dominated by ANME-2c. - 2015
MSc. Sophie Radeke - Diversity, function and interactions of anaerobic methanotrophs in Loki ́s Castle Vent Field. - 2015
MSc Carina Magnussen - Genekspresjon av karbonmonoksid dehydrogenase/acethyl-CoA syntase komplekset og sat-ORF2-aprBA operonet i Arhcaeoglobus fulgidus. - 2010