Vita
Prof. Dr. Markus Pfenninger
Professor, Head of the Molecular Laboratory, Head of Research Group 'Molecular Ecology'
markus.pfenninger@senckenberg.de
Research interests
The focus of my research is the genomic basis of niche evolution, speciation and local adaptation with closely related species pairs and intraspecific variation in land and freshwater snails, non-biting midges and extremophile molly fishes. We take an integrative approach: field studies, ecological and evolutionary experiments, comparative genomic approaches and experimental evolution. The ultimate vision thereby is to relate ecological differences functionally to their genomic basis.
Former Projects:
D1: cross-taxon genomic basis of climate-relevant fitness traits
D3: development of taxonomic dna-chips and other high-troughput tests for the routine identification of monitoring samples
D3.1: benthos barcoding
A1.3: radiation of pulmonata during the cenozoic [ellobioidea] (2008-2011)
A1.7: model selection
B1.14: tropical marine ecosystems: diversity and dynamics of coral reef ecosystems and reef-associated fish assemblages
C5.2: evolutionary adaptation potential of key aquatic species of different climatic regions