LaRoche Lab

Dr. Jennifer Tolman

Lab Manager

PhD (Wester, Ontario, Canada) studying Intracellular behaviour of the opportunistic pathogen Burkholderia cenocepacia in murine macrophages
BScH (Carleton, Ontario, Canada) Forensic Science

As lab manager, I am responsible for the day-to-day operation of the LaRoche lab at Dalhousie University (Halifax, NS). I am also involved in field sampling and lab-based experiments related to a number of research projects, including the cultivation of a novel diazotroph, examining microbial gene expression related to the nitrogen cycle using the nCounter by NanoString, quantitation of diazotrophs through qPCR, and high-throughput sequencing of microbial populations and diazotrophs in particular. Furthermore, the lab is equipped with a BD Influx flow cytometer, funded by the Canada Foundation for Innovation. We use this cell sorter to identify and isolate microbial populations in natural seawater with a view to culturing, sequencing, and eventual single-cell genomics.

Publications

Robicheau BM, Tolman J, Rose S, Desai D, LaRoche J. 2023. Marine nitrogen-fixers in the Canadian Arctic Gateway are dominated by biogeographically distinct non-cyanobacterial communities. FEMS Microbiology Ecology 99(12): fiad122.

Tolman J, Desai D, LaRoche J. 2024. Rapid quantitative assessment of temporal and spatial variation in key functional genes of the microbial nitrogen cycle across multiple marine environments using the NanoString nCounter. Limnology and Oceanography: Methods 22(2): 103-117.

Rose SA, Robicheau BM, Tolman J, Fonseca-Batista D, Rowland E, Desai D, Ratten J-M, Kantor EJH, Comeau AM, Langille MGI, Jerlström-Hultqvist J, Devred E, Sarthou G, Bertrand EM, LaRoche J. 2024. Nitrogen fixation in the widely distributed marine γ-proteobacterial diazotroph Candidatus Thalassolituus haligoni. Science Advances 10(31): eadn1476.

Ratten J, Blanchard H, Zorz J, Tolman J, Desai D, LaRoche J. 2017. The diversity and distribution of nifH phylotypes in the tropical and temperate north atlantic ocean. Dedication page. 51

Ratten J, Comeau A, Tolman J, Langille M, LaRoche J. 2017. Isolation and genome sequencing of a novel marine heterotrophic diazotroph sheds light on its lifestyle. Dedication page. 182

2015. The Ocean Sampling Day Consortium. Gigascience. 4(1):27

Rosales-Reyes R, Aubert D, Tolman J, Amer A, Valvano M. 2012. Burkholderia cenocepacia type VI secretion system mediates escape of type II secreted proteins into the cytoplasm of infected macrophages. PLoS ONE 7(7):e41726.

Tolman J, Valvano M. 2012. Global changes in gene expression by the opportunitic pathogen Burkholderia cenocepacia in response to internalization by murine macrophages. BMC genomics. 13(1):63