Genomic Diversity, Evolution and Climate

We seek to understand biodiversity in the Earth system at the genomic level by investigating the impacts of climate and other drivers on the spatial and temporal distribution of genomic diversity at the level of individuals, populations and ecological communities.

In particular, we focus on understanding the genomic basis of adaptation to climate change, the influence of climate on genome architecture and variation, and the genetic responses of ecological communities to climate change in interaction with other anthropogenic drivers. We study present genomic diversity to infer past evolutionary processes and aim to predict the evolutionary capacity of populations and species in the future using integrative models.

Key questions

What is the genomic basis for adaptations to climate change and other anthropogenic drivers?
How do climateand other drivers influence genome architecture and genome variation?
What is the genomic response of ecological communities to climate change in interaction with other drivers?

Speakers

13 : 18 Hochformat

Prof. Dr. Imke Schmitt

Professor, Deputy Director 'Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre', Head of Research Group 'Molecular Evolutionary Biology'

Phone +49 69 7542-1855

Fax +49 69 7982-4771

imke.schmitt@senckenberg.de

RESEARCH INTERESTS

My primary research interest is the evolution of symbiotic organisms, in particular those that form partnerships with fungi. I have been using phylogenetics and comparative phylogenetics to analyze the evolutionary history of lichen-forming fungi and their characters. Since many fungal groups produce a wide variety of secondary metabolites, I am also interested in exploring the potential of phylogenetic methods in natural product chemistry to understand the evolution of chemical characters and biosynthetic genes. Currently my lab is studying the effects of climate change on the assembly of fungal communities associated with plant leaves and roots using next generation sequencing approaches. We want to find out, if the composition of symbiotic fungal communities affects local adaptation of the plants. My work integrates a variety of disciplines, such as molecular phylogenetics, systematics, natural product chemistry, and metagenomics.

LINKS

Ecological functions of bioactive natural products from lichens (Project at LOEWE Centre for Translational Biodiversity Genomics)

For a list of all my publications, see my Google Scholar profile

SGN

Prof. Dr. Markus Pfenninger

Professor, Head of the Molecular Laboratory, Head of Research Group 'Molecular Ecology'

Phone +49 69 7542-1841

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

Curriculum Vitae

Aktuelle Publikationen

Genomic Diversity, Evolution and Climate

Key questions

Speakers

Similar topics

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