Speare Lab
Marine Microbial Ecology
In Review / Revision
Speare, L.*, Zhao, L., Pavelsky, M. N., Jackson, A., Smith, S., Tyagi, B., Sharpe, G. C., Woo, M., Satkowiak, L., Bolton, T., Gifford, S. M., & Septer, A. N.* (2024). Flagella are required to coordinately activate competition and host colonization factors in response to a mechanical signal. bioRxiv : The Preprint Server for Biology. Accepted at mBio.
https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.12.31.573711
Speare, L., & Rosales, S.M. The two-decade evolution of in vivo coral microbiome manipulations. Invited Manuscript. In Revision
2026
Speare, L., Rosales, S. M., Peterson, A. Halobacteriovorax sp. GFR8 growth and aquarium inoculation protocol. protocols.io (2026). https://dx.doi.org/10.17504/protocols.io.n2bvjexk5gk5/v1
Speare, L.*, Klinges, J. G., Duke, W. C., Muller, E. M., Vega Thurber, R. L. Evaluating Candidatus Aquirickettsia rohweri gene expression upon nutrient enrichment in disease-susceptible Acropora cervicornis. Frontiers in Microbiology (2026) https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2026.1754183
Speare, L.*, Coppinger, M. N., Fierros-Romero, G., & Williams, H. N. (2026). Draft genome sequences of two Halobacteriovorax strains isolated from Apalachicola Bay, Florida. Microbiology Resource Announcements, e00851-25, e0085125. https://doi.org/10.1128/mra.00851-25
2025
Speare, L.*, Manley, C., Patton, S., Fuques, E., Coppinger, M. N., & Vega Thurber, R. L. (2025). Halobacteriovorax halts disease progression in endangered Caribbean corals. The ISME Journal, 19(1). https://doi.org/10.1093/ismejo/wraf270
Speare, L., Pavelsky, M., Jackson, A., & Septer, A. N.* (2025). H-NS is a conserved repressor of the type VI secretion system in Vibrio fischeri. In bioRxiv (p. 2025.01. 30.634523). bioRxiv. https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.01.30.634523
Vega Thurber, R. L.*, Silva, D., Speare, L., Croquer, A., Veglia, A. J., Alvarez-Filip, L., Zaneveld, J. R., Muller, E. M., & Correa, A. M. S. (2025). Coral disease: Direct and indirect agents, mechanisms of disease, and innovations for increasing resistance and resilience. Annual Review of Marine Science, 17. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-marine-011123-102337
2024
Zarate, D., Isenberg, R. Y., Pavelsky, M., Speare, L., Jackson, A., Mandel, M. J., & Septer, A. N.* (2024). The conserved global regulator H-NS has a strain-specific impact on biofilm formation in Vibrio fischeri symbionts. In bioRxivorg. https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.12.19.629378
Speare publications prior to Georgia Tech appointment
Speare, L.*, & Distel, D. L. (2022). Cultivation and Fluorescent in situ hybridization suggest that some shipworm species acquire endosymbiotic bacteria through indirect horizontal transmission. bioRxiv. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.11.13.516348.abstract
Speare, L., Jackson, A., & Septer, A. N.* (2022). Calcium Promotes T6SS-Mediated Killing and Aggregation between Competing Symbionts. Microbiology Spectrum, 10(6), e0139722. https://doi.org/10.1128/spectrum.01397-22
Suria, A. M., Smith, S., Speare, L., Chen, Y., Chien, I., Clark, E. G., Krueger, M., Warwick, A. M., Wilkins, H., & Septer, A. N.* (2022). Prevalence and diversity of type VI secretion systems in a model beneficial symbiosis. Frontiers in Microbiology, 13, 988044. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2022.988044
Speare, L., Woo, M., Dunn, A. K., & Septer, A. N.* (2022). A Putative Lipoprotein Mediates Cell-Cell Contact for Type VI Secretion System-Dependent Killing of Specific Competitors. mBio, 13(2), e0308521. https://doi.org/10.1128/mbio.03085-21
Dial, C. N., Speare, L., Sharpe, G. C., Gifford, S. M., Septer, A. N., & Visick, K. L*. (2021). Para-Aminobenzoic Acid, Calcium, and c-di-GMP Induce Formation of Cohesive, Syp-Polysaccharide-Dependent Biofilms in Vibrio fischeri. mBio, 12(5), e0203421. https://doi.org/10.1128/mBio.02034-21
Speare, L., Woo, M., Bultman, K. M., Mandel, M. J., Wollenberg, M. S., & Septer, A. N.* (2021). Host-Like Conditions Are Required for T6SS-Mediated Competition among Vibrio fischeri Light Organ Symbionts. mSphere, 6(4), e0128820. https://doi.org/10.1128/mSphere.01288-20
Speare, L., Smith, S., Salvato, F., Kleiner, M., & Septer, A. N.* (2020). Environmental Viscosity Modulates Interbacterial Killing during Habitat Transition. mBio, 11(1). https://doi.org/10.1128/mBio.03060-19
Speare, L.*, Davies, S. W., & Balmonte, J. P. (2020). Patterns of environmental variability influence coral‐associated bacterial and algal communities on the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef. Molecular. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/mec.15497
Septer, A. N.*, Speare, L., Coleman, C. K., Smith, S., Dorsey, C., Wilson, T., & Gifford, S. M. (2020). Draft Genome Sequence of a Harveyi Clade Bacterium Isolated from Lolliguncula brevis Squid. Microbiology Resource Announcements, 9(8). https://doi.org/10.1128/MRA.00078-20
Speare, L., & Septer, A. N.* (2019). Coincubation Assay for Quantifying Competitive Interactions between Vibrio fischeri Isolates. Journal of Visualized Experiments: JoVE, 149. https://doi.org/10.3791/59759
Speare, L., Cecere, A. G., Guckes, K. R., Smith, S., Wollenberg, M. S., Mandel, M. J., Miyashiro, T.*, & Septer, A. N.* (2018). Bacterial symbionts use a type VI secretion system to eliminate competitors in their natural host. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 115(36), E8528–E8537. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1808302115