Gary Trubl

Portrait of Gary Trubl

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  • Title
    Microbiologist, Research Scientist
  • Email
    trubl1@llnl.gov
  • Phone
    (925) 422-1623
  • Organization
    PLS-BBTD-BIOSCIENCES, BIOTECHNOLOGY

Public Profiles

Twitter | LinkedIn | ResearchGate | Google Scholar | Publons | ORCID

Research Interests

I have always had a love for the environment and have been interested in how science and policy can shape our future. I love teaching and outreach, and believe it is our duty as scientists to shape the next generation. I use meta-omic approaches combined with other tools, such as stable isotope probing, to detect and characterize viruses and virus-microbe interactions in soil ecosystems. My passion is understanding the mechanisms viruses use to control microbial physiology and the ecosystem-level impact.

  • Microbial ecology
  • Virology
  • Environmental science
  • Biogeochemistry
  • Astrobiology
  • Geobiology
  • Soil microbiology
  • Meta-omics
  • Climate change
  • Biotechnology

2018-2021, LLNL - Nuclear and Chemical Sciences Division, Postdoctoral Research Scientist

2018, Ohio State University, PhD

2013, University of Nevada, Reno, MS

2011, University of Arizona, BS

Peer-Reviewed Work

  1. Carreira, C., Lønborg, C., Acharya, B., Aryal, L., Buivydaite, Z., Borim Corrêa, F., Chen, T., Lorensen Elberg, C., Emerson, J.B., Hillary, L., Khadka, R.B., Langlois, V., , Mason-Jones, K., Netherway, T., Sutela, S., Trubl, G., Wang, R., White III, R., Kang'eri, A., Winding, A., Zhao, T., Sapkota, R. Integrating viruses into soil food web biogeochemistry. Nat Microbiology 2024. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41564-024-01767-x 

  2. Schaible, M.J., Szeinbaum, N.,... 50 authors..., Trubl, G., Vidaurri, M., Vincent, L., Weber, J.M., Weng, M.M., Wilpiszeki, R.L., and Young, A., 2024. Chapter 1: The Astrobiology Primer 3.0. Astrobiology, 24(S1), pp.S-4. https://doi.org/10.1089/ast.2021.0129
  3. Colón-Santos, S., Vázquez-Salazar, A., Adams, A., Campillo-Balderas, J.A., Hernández-Morales, R., Jácome, R., Muñoz-Velasco, I., Rodriguez, L.E., Schaible, M.J., Schaible, G.A., Szeinbaum, N., Thweatt, J.L., and Trubl, G.,  2024. Chapter 2: What Is Life?. Astrobiology, 24(S1), pp.S-40. https://doi.org/10.1089/ast.2021.0116
  4. Bozdag, G.O., Szeinbaum, N., Conlin, P.L., Chen, K., Fos, S.M., Garcia, A., Penev, P.I., Schaible, G.A. and Trubl, G., 2024. Chapter 5: Major Biological Innovations in the History of Life on Earth. Astrobiology, 24(S1), pp.S-107. https://doi.org/10.1089/ast.2021.0119
  5. Chou, L., Grefenstette, N., Borges, S., Caro, T., Catalano, E., Harman, C.E., McKaig, J., Raj, C.G., Trubl, G. and Young, A., 2024. Chapter 8: Searching for Life Beyond Earth. Astrobiology, 24(S1), pp.S-164. https://doi.org/10.1089/ast.2021.0104
  6. Heinrichs, M.E., Piedade, G.J., Popa, O., Sommers, P., Trubl, G., Weissenbach, J. and Rahlff, J., 2023. Breaking the Ice: A Review of Phages in Polar Ecosystems. Bacteriophages: Methods and Protocols, pp.31-71. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-3549-0_3
  7. Buivydaitė, Ž., Aryal, L., Corrêa, F.B., Chen, T., Langlois, V., Elberg, C., Netherway, T., Wang, R., Zhao, T., Acharya, B., Emerson, J.B., Hillary, L., Khadka, R.B., Mason-Jones, K., Sapkota, R., Sutela, S., Trubl, G., White III, R.A., ‪Winding, A., Carreira, C. Meeting Report: The First Soil Viral Workshop 2022. Virus Research, pp.199121-199121. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.virusres.2023.199121
  8. Trubl, G., Stedman, K., Bywaters, K.F., Matula, E.E., Sommers, P., Roux, S., Merino, N., Yin, J., Kaelber, J.T., Avila-Herrera, A., Johnson, P.A., Johnson, Borges, S., Weber, P., Pett-Ridge, J-P, Boston, P., K., 2023. Astrovirology: How viruses enhance our understanding of life in the universe. International Journal of Astrobiology, pp.1-25. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1473550423000058
  9. Wu R., Trubl G., Taş N., Jansson J.K., 2022. Permafrost as a Potential Pathogen Reservoir. One Earth, 5(4), pp. 351-360. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2022.03.010
  10. Sokol, N.W., Slessarev, E., Marschmann, G.L., Nicolas, A., Blazewicz, S.J., Brodie, E.L., Firestone, M.K., Foley, M.M., Hestrin, R., Hungate, B.A., Koch, B.J., Stone, B.W., Sullivan, M.B., Zablocki, O., LLNL Soil Microbiome Consortium, and Pett-Ridge, J., 2022. Life and death in the soil microbiome: how ecological processes influence biogeochemistry. Nature Reviews Microbiology. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41579-022-00695-z
  11. Holmes, M.E., Crill, P.M., Burnett, W.C., McCalley, C.K., Wilson, R.M., Frolking, S., Chang, K.Y., Riley, W.J., Varner, R.K., Hodgkins, S.B., IsoGenie Project Coordinators, IsoGenie Field Team, McNichol, A.P., Saleska, S.R., Rich, V.I., and J. P. Chanton,  2022. Carbon accumulation, flux, and fate in Stordalen Mire, a permafrost peatland in transition. Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 36(1), p.e2021GB007113. https://doi.org/10.1029/2021GB007113
  12. †Mageeney, C.M., †Trubl, G., Williams, K., 2022. Improved mobilome delineation in fragmented genomes. Frontiers in Bioinformatics 2:866850. p.35. https://doi.org/10.3389/fbinf.2022.866850
  13. ter Horst, A.M., Santos-Medellín, C., Sorensen, J.W., Zinke, L.A., Wilson, R.M., Johnston, E.R., Trubl, G., Pett-Ridge, J., Blazewicz, S.J., Hanson, P.J. and Chanton, J.P., 2021. Minnesota peat viromes reveal terrestrial and aquatic niche partitioning for local and global viral populations. Microbiome, 9(1), pp.1-18. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40168-021-01156-0
  14. Trubl, G., Kimbrel, J.A., Liquet-Gonzalez, J., Nuccio E.E., Weber P.K., Pett-Ridge J., Jansson J.K., Waldrop M.P., Blazewicz S.J. 2021. Active virus-host interactions at sub-freezing temperatures in Arctic peat soil. Microbiome 9, 208. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40168-021-01154-2
  15. Sommers P., Chatterjee A., Varsani A., Trubl G., 2021. Integrating viral metagenomics into an ecological framework. Annual Review of Virology, 8. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-virology-010421-053015
  16. Taş, N., de Jong, A.E., Li, Y., Trubl, G., Xue, Y. and Dove, N.C., 2021. Metagenomic tools in microbial ecology research. Current Opinion in Biotechnology, 67, pp.184-191. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copbio.2021.01.019
  17. Wilson, R.M., Zayed, A.A., Crossen, K.B., Woodcroft, B., Tfaily, M.M., Emerson, J., Raab, N., Hodgkins, S.B., Verbeke, B., Tyson, G., Crill, P., Saleska, S., Chanton, J.P., Rich, V.I., IsoGenie Project Coordinators, IsoGenie Project Field Team, 2021. Functional capacities of microbial communities to carry out large scale geochemical processes are maintained during ex situ anaerobic incubation. PLoS One. 16(2):e0245857. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0245857
  18. Bolduc B, Hodgkins SB, Varner RK, Crill PM, McCalley CK, Chanton JP, Tyson GW, Riley WJ, Palace M, Duhaime MB, Hough MA, IsoGenie Project Coordinators, IsoGenie Project Team, A2A Project Team, Saleska SR, Sullivan MB, Rich VI. 2020. The IsoGenie database: an interdisciplinary data management solution for ecosystems biology and environmental research. PeerJ 8:e9467. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.9467
  19. Hyman P., Trubl G. and Abedon S.T., 2020. Virus-Like Particle: Evolving Meanings in Different Disciplines. Therapy, Applications, and Research, 2(1), pp.11-15. https://doi.org/10.1089/phage.2020.0026
  20. Trubl G., Hyman P., Roux S., Abedon S.T. 2020. Coming-of-Age Characterization of Soil Viruses: A User’s Guide to Virus Isolation, Detection within Metagenomes, and Viromics. Soil Systems, 4(23). https://doi.org/10.3390/soilsystems4020023
  21. Van Goethem M.W., Swenson T.L., Trubl G., Roux S., Northern T.R. 2019. Characteristics of Wetting-Induced Bacteriophage Blooms in Biological Soil Crust. mBio, 10(6). https://doi.org/10.1128/mbio.02287-19
  22. Trubl G., Roux S., Solonenko N., Li Y-F., Rodríguez-Ramos J., Bolduc B., Eloe-Fadrosh E.A., Rich V.I., & Sullivan M.B. 2019. Towards optimized viral metagenomes for double-stranded and single-stranded DNA viruses from challenging soils. PeerJ 7:e7265. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.7265
  23. Roux S., Trubl G., Goudeau D., Nath N., Couradeau E., Ahlgren N.A., Zhan Y., Marsan D., Chen F., Fuhrman J.A., Northen T.R., Coleman M.L., Sullivan M.B., Rich V.I., Malmstrom R.R., Eloe-Fadrosh E.A. 2019. Optimizing de novo genome assembly from PCR-amplified metagenomes. PeerJ 7:e6902. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.6902
  24. Trubl G., Jang H-B., Roux S., Emerson J.B., Bolduc B., Solonenko N., Vik D.R., Ellenbogen J., Runyon A.T., Solden L., Woodcroft B.J., Tyson G.W., Wrighton K.C., Saleska S.R., Sullivan M.B., & Rich V.I. 2018. Soil viruses are underexplored players in ecosystem carbon processing. mSystems, 3(5), pp.e00076-18.
  25. Emerson J.B., Roux S., Brum J.R., Bolduc B., Woodcroft B.J., Jang H-B., Singleton C.M., Solden L.M., Naas A.E., Boyd J.A., Hodgkins S.B., Wilson R.M., Trubl G., Li C., Frolking S., Pope P.B., Wrighton K.C., Crill P.M., Chanton J.P., Saleska S.R., Tyson G.W., Rich V.I., & Sullivan M.B. 2018. Host-linked soil viral ecology along a permafrost thaw gradient. Nature Microbiology, 3, 870–880; DOI: 10.1038/s41564-018-0190-y.
  26. Ostrom N.E., Gandhi H., Trubl G., and Murray A.E. 2016. Chemodenitrification in the cryoecosystem of Lake Vida, Victoria Valley, Antarctica. Geobiology, 14(6), pp. 575-587.
  27. Trubl G., Solonenko N., Chittick L., Solonenko S.A., Rich V.I. and Sullivan M.B. 2016. Optimization of viral resuspension methods for carbon-rich soils along a permafrost thaw gradient. PeerJ, 4, p.e1999.
  28. Brum J. R., Kim E-K., Ignacio-Espinoza J.C., Trubl G., Jones R., VerBerkmoes N., Rich V.I., & Sullivan M.B. 2016. Illuminating structural proteins in viral ‘dark matter’. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 113(9), pp.2436-2441.
  29. Kuhn E., Ichimura A.S., Peng V., Fritsen C.H., Trubl G., Doran P.T., Murray A.E. 2014. Brine assemblages of ultra-small microbial cells within the ice cover of Lake Vida, Antarctica. Applied and Environmental Microbiology 80, (12): 3687-3698.

Non-Peer-Reviewed Publications and Whitepapers

  1. Ph.D. and baby? A book about having a baby during your PhD career. Includes a roadmap for degree completion, encouragement to find joy in the journey, overcoming obstacles, coping with disabilities, and turning to faith. Lead author Michelle Gerst, with editing and separate stories by Gareth Trubl and Gertie Janneke Oostingh.
  2. Trubl, G., Stedman, K., Bywaters, K., Boston, P.J., Kaelber, J.T., Roux, S., Emerson, J.B., Breitbart, M., Yin, J., Janjic, A. and Sommers, P., 2021. Astrovirology: Expanding the Search for Life. Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 53(4), p. 516.
  3. Hand, K., Phillips, C.B., Chyba, C.F., Toner, B., Katija, K., Orphan, V., Huber, J., Cavanaugh, C.M., Carlson, M., Christner, B. and Templeton, A., … Trubl, G., … 2021. On the Past, Present, and Future Role of Biology in NASA’s Exploration of our Solar System. Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 53(4), p. 229.
  4. Trubl, G., Stedman, K., Bywaters, K., and Boston, P.J. Expanding the Virosphere. White paper for “Research That Falls in a Gap between Current SMD Solicitations, ” Solicitation #: NNH20ZDA003L. Submitted Jan. 30, 2020. Proposal #:N0-SMDGAP-0033.
  5. Trubl, G., 2018. Pioneering soil viromics to elucidate viral impacts on soil ecosystem services (Doctoral dissertation, The Ohio State University).
  6. Trubl, G., 2018. JGI SCGSR fellowship end report.
  7. Trubl G. 2014. Mesquite pods: A superfood that is delicious, free, and right in your backyard. Southwest Environment (https://swes.cals.arizona.edu/environmental_writing/stories.html), Tucson, AZ.
  8. Trubl G. 2013. Insights into the origin of N2O in Lake Vida brine. Master’s Thesis, University of Nevada, Reno, 64; 1545738.
  • College of Agriculture, Biotechnology, and Natural Resource’s Outstanding Graduate Student, University of Nevada, Reno (2013)
  • Agouron International Geobiology course scholar (2014)
  • University of Arizona Sky School fellow (2014–2015)
  • 2016 NASA astrobiology institute summer school scholar (Santander, Spain)
  • Astrobiology Science Conference 2017 travel award
  • DOE-SCGSR fellowship at JGI (June 4–November 1, 2018)
  • Best poster award at LLNL postdoc symposium (May 1, 2019)
  • LLNL Research Slam finalist (Oct. 29, 2019)
  • Joint Genome Institute New Investigator Community Science Program award (2022)