Linta RejiAssistant Professor

Research Focus:

Environmental Microbiology, Microbial Ecology, and Biogeochemistry

Email:

lreji@uchicago.edu

Office:

Hinds 373

Research Focus

Environmental Microbiology, Microbial Ecology, and Biogeochemistry

Biography

I am a microbial ecologist and a biogeochemist focusing on microbial elemental cycling in terrestrial and coastal systems. I received my Ph.D. from the department of Earth System Sciences at Stanford University, where I studied archaea mediating nitrogen transformations in the coastal ocean. My postdoctoral research at the department of Geosciences at Princeton University focused on mechanistic underpinnings of microbially mediated trace gas cycling in soils and wetlands.

Preferred Pronouns: she/her/hers

Research Interests

My research seeks to develop a mechanistic understanding of microbial responses to environmental change and their consequences for biogeochemical processes in terrestrial and coastal systems. Specifically, I study various microbially mediated transformations within the carbon, nitrogen, and hydrogen cycles. My research broadly encompasses the following two focal areas: (i) microbial trace gas cycling in the face of natural and anthropogenic global change; and (ii) ecosystem implications of the generation and maintenance of microbial diversity. My work integrates perturbation experiments in the lab with spatio-temporally resolved field observations, using a combination of tools from molecular microbial ecology and biogeochemistry.

Selected Publications

• Reji L., Darnajoux R., Zhang X. (2024). A Genomic View of Environmental and Life History

Controls on Microbial Nitrogen Acquisition Strategies. Environmental Microbiology Reports, 16:e13220,

doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/1758-2229.13220.

 

• Reji L., Zhang X. (2022). Genome-Resolved Metagenomics Informs the Functional Ecology

of Uncultured Acidobacteria in Redox Oscillated Sphagnum Peat. mSystems. 7(5): e00055-22. doi:

https://doi.org/10.1128/msystems.00055-22.

 

• Reji L., Cardarelli E.L., Boyce K., Bargar J., Francis C.A. (2022). Diverse ecophysiological

adaptations of subsurface Thaumarchaeota in floodplain sediments revealed through

genome-resolved metagenomics. ISME J. 16:1140-1152. doi: 10.1038/s41396-021-

01167-7.

 

• Reji L., Francis C.A. (2020). Metagenome-assembled genomes reveal unique metabolic

adaptations of a basal marine Thaumarchaeota lineage. ISME J 14: 2105–2115. doi:

10.1038/s41396-020-0675-6.

 

• Reji L., Tolar B. B., Smith J. M., Chavez F. P., Francis, C. A. (2019). Differential cooccurrence

relationships shaping ecotype diversification within Thaumarchaeota populations in the coastal ocean water column. ISME J. 13, 1144–1158. doi: 10.1038/s41396-018-0311-x.