Vita
Prof. Dr. Axel Janke
Professor, Head of Research Group 'Evolutionary vertebrate genomics'
axel.janke@senckenberg.de
I am interested in the evolution of vertebrates in general, including marsupials, birds, almost every placental mammalian order, lizards, snakes, crocodiles and fishes. Besides reconstructing and dating their evolutionary tree, placing the events into larger contexts of e.g. biogeography, plate tectonics and climate is exciting. The increasing amount of genomic data show that evolution may not be a bifurcating process, but seeing it as a network will enhance our understanding of evolution. Currently – as of January 2017 – I am interested and working on the following topics for which PhD, master or project students are welcome:
Giraffe Research
Mammalian phylogenomics (see D2.3)
Arctic adaptation (see D2.4)
Genomics and speciation (see D2.3)
Genomics and climate (environmental) change (see D2.4)
The basic divergences of crocodiles
The evolution of marsupials
Click here for more information about the topics.
External links
Publications, Citations, h- and i10-index
Who is Who in Phylogenetic Networks
Publikationen
Selected recent publications
TE Reiners, D Prochotta, T Schell, C Greve, AB Hamadou, C Gerheim (2025). Chromosome-level genome of the European hamster (Cricetus cricetus) and its genome-wide population structure across Western Europe. BMC biology 23 (1), 27,. doi.org/10.1186/s12915-025-02384-8
MJ de Jong, M Awan, N Lecomte, EE Puckett, AP Crupi, A Janke (2025). Population-genomics reveals a dual ancestry of grizzly bears. iScienc, doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2025.112870
M Nebenführ, D Prochotta, MA Nilsson, MJ de Jong, TD Yazici (2025). Chromosome-level genome assembly of the lemon sole, Microstomus kitt (Pleuronectiformes: Pleuronectidae). Gigabyte 2025, gigabyte156-0. doi.org/10.46471/gigabyte.156
H Letsch, C Greve, AK Hundsdoerfer, I Irisarri, JM Moore, M Espeland (2025). Type genomics: a framework for integrating genomic data into biodiversity and taxonomic research. Systematic Biology, syaf040. doi.org/10.1093/sysbio/syaf040
MJ de Jong, C van Oosterhout, AR Hoelzel, A Janke (2025). Moderating the neutralist–selectionist debate: exactly which propositions are we debating, and which arguments are valid? (2025). Biological Reviews 99 (1), 23-55. doi.org/10.1111/brv.13010
M Nebenführ, AB Hamadou, A Aguilar, A Borrell, GA Gkafas, A Janke (2025). Mediterranean monk seal (Monachus monachus) and leopard seal (Hydrurga leptonyx) de novo genomes to study the demographic history and genetic diversity. BMC biology 23 (1), 102. doi.org/10.1186/s12915-025-02207-w
AB Muneza, MB Brown, S Fennessy, SD Ferguson, R Hoffman, A Janke (2025). Effective conservation and management of giraffe require adopting recent advances of their taxonomy. Biodiversity and Conservation 34 (4), 1211-1229. doi.org/10.1007/s10531-025-03021-0
MJ de Jong, G Anaya, A Niamir, J Pérez-González, C Broggini (2025). Red deer resequencing reveals the importance of sex chromosomes for reconstructing Late Quaternary events. Molecular biology and evolution 42 (2), msaf031. doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf031
M Wolf, MJ de Jong, A Janke (2025). Ocean‐Wide Conservation Genomics of Blue Whales Suggest New Northern Hemisphere Subspecies. Molecular ecology 34 (2), e17619. doi.org/10.1111/mec.17619
D Prochotta, S Winter, J Fennessy, A Janke (2024). Population genomics of the southern giraffe. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 201, 108198. doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2024.108198
Bruno Lopes da Silva Ferrette, Raphael TF Coimbra, Sven Winter, Menno J De Jong, Samuel Mackey Williams, Rui Coelho, Daniela Rosa, Matheus Marcos Rotundo, Freddy Arocha, Bruno Leite Mourato, Fernando Fernandes Mendonça, Axel Janke (2023) Seascape genomics and mitogenomic phylogeography of the sailfish (Istiophorus platypterus) . Genome Biology and Evolution
Menno J de Jong, Aidin Niamir, Magnus Wolf, Andrew C Kitchener, Nicolas Lecomte, Ivan V Seryodkin, Steven R Fain, Snorre B Hagen, Urmas Saarma, Axel Janke (2023) Range-wide whole-genome resequencing of the brown bear reveals drivers of intraspecies divergence. Communications Biology 6 (1), 153
Magnus Wolf, Menno De Jong, Sverrir Daníel Halldórsson, Úlfur Árnason, Axel Janke (2022) Genomic Impact of Whaling in North Atlantic Fin Whales. Molecular biology and evolution 39 (5)
Raphael TF Coimbra, Sven Winter, Vikas Kumar, Klaus-Peter Koepfli, Rebecca M Gooley, Pavel Dobrynin, Julian Fennessy, Axel Janke (2021) Whole-genome analysis of giraffe supports four distinct species. Current Biology
Stefan Prost, Sven Winter, Jordi De Raad, Raphael TF Coimbra, Magnus Wolf, Maria A Nilsson, Malte Petersen, Deepak K Gupta, Tilman Schell, Fritjof Lammers, Axel Janke (2020) Education in the genomics era: Generating high-quality genome assemblies in university courses. Gigascience
Arnason, U., Lammers, F., Kumar, V., Nilsson, M.A. Janke A (2018) Whole-genome sequencing of the blue whale and other rorquals finds signatures for introgressive gene flow. Science Advances
Kumar, V., Lammers, F., Bidon, T., Pfenninger, M., Kolter, L., Nilsson, M.A. and Janke, A. (2017) The
evolutionary history of bears is characterized by gene flow across species. Scientific Reports
Fennessy, J., Bidon, T., Reuss, F., Kumar, V., Elkan, P., Nilsson, M.A., Vamberger, M., Fritz, U. and Janke, A. (2016) Multi-locus analyses reveal four giraffe species instead of one. Current Biology
Bidon, T., Schreck, N., Hailer, F., Nilsson, M.A., Janke A (2015) Genome-wide search identifies 1.9 megabases from the polar bear Y chromosome for evolutionary analyses. Genome Biol Evol
Gallus, S., Hallström, B.M., Kumar, V., Janke, A., Ning, Z., Murchison, E.M., Yang, F., Fu, B., Bertelsen, M.F., Schumann, G.G., Nilsson, M.A. (2015) Evolutionary histories of transposable elements in the genome of the largest living marsupial carnivore, the Tasmanian devil. Mol Biol Evol (early access)
Kutschera, V. E., Bidon, T., Hailer, F., Rodi, J. L., Fain, S. R., Janke, A. (2014) Bears in a forest of gene trees: Phylogenetic inference is complicated by incomplete lineage sorting and gene flow. Molecular Biology and Evolution, MBE2014/06/05/molbev.msu186
Bapteste, E., van Iersel, L., Janke, A., Kelchner, S., Kelk, S., McInerney, J. O., Morrison, D. A., Nakhleh, L., Steel, M., Stougie, L., Whitfield, J. (2013) Networks: expanding evolutionary thinking. Trends in Genetics 29:439-441. doi: 10.1016/j.tig.2013.05.007.
Arnason, U., Lammers, F., Kumar, V., Nilsson, M.A. Janke A (2018): Whole-genome sequencing of the blue whale and other rorquals finds signatures for introgressive gene flow. Science Advances.