research interest
Why males and females exist and how sex roles have evolved belong to the most controversial issues in evolutionary biology. We examine the evolution of a unique evolutionary novelty: male pregnancy in pipefishes and seahorses (syngnathids) by addressing its genetic basis and the modulations of the immune system. Insights into joint and distinct loss or recruitment of genes along with the establishment of novel genes for male vs. female pregnancy, will help to unravel convergent evolution of parental investment and pregnancy.
Modifications in the syngnathid immune systems provided the evolutionary opportunity for male pregnancy evolution. We investigate the evolutionary flexibility of vertebrate immune systems and assess how such natural immunological deficiencies could evolutionary be compensated. We aim to understand the importance of trained immunity in teleosts with a deficiency in their adaptive immune system by investigating immune responses on the cellular and the molecular level and focus on the syngnathids as metaorganism by unravelling the interactions with their microbes ranging from mutualistic to virulent.
CV
- 05/2021 – present: Professor at Kiel University, head of MarEvol group
- 11/2017 – 04/2021: Group Leader (tenured) at GEOMAR
- 06/2012 – 10/2017: Junior Group Leader at GEOMAR
- 01/2015 – 11/2015: Maternity leave
- 04/2009 – 05/2012: Postdoc at GEOMAR with Thorsten Reusch
- 05/2006 – 03/2009: PhD at the ETH Zurich (Switzerland) and Münster University (Germany) with Paul Schmid-Hempel and Joachim Kurtz
- 10/2004 – 04/2006: Master of Science in Animal Biology, University of Basel (Switzerland) with Dieter Ebert
- 10/2001 – 09/2004: Bachelor of Science in Organismic Biology, University of Basel (Switzerland)
selected publications
State: 01/2023
Highlights
- we developed a marine model system for studying the trajectories of evolutionary novelty and host-microbe interaction, the pipefish Syngnathus typhle, Vibrio bacteria and temperate phages
- we use experimental and field work combined with comparative transcriptomics and genomics, immunology and microbiology
- we aim to disentangle sex from sex role by using the advantage of our sex-role reversed model system to test theories in the field of evolutionary biology from a different angle
- we address the selection for transfer of immunity and microbes from both father and mothers to offspring and in the differences in immune efficiency between males and females
- we expand dual host-parasite interactions to tri-partite host-parasite coevolution by focusing on pipefish, bacteria and their filamentous bacteriophages with the aim to evaluate the evolution from friendly to nasty in a tri-partite marine species interaction
Why males and females exist and how sex roles have evolved belong to the most controversial issues in evolutionary biology. We examine the evolution of a unique evolutionary novelty: male pregnancy in pipefishes and seahorses (syngnathids) by addressing its genetic basis and the modulations of the immune system. Insights into joint and distinct loss or recruitment of genes along with the establishment of novel genes for male vs. female pregnancy, will help to unravel convergent evolution of parental investment and pregnancy.
Modifications in the syngnathid immune systems provided the evolutionary opportunity for male pregnancy evolution. We investigate the evolutionary flexibility of vertebrate immune systems and assess how such natural immunological deficiencies could evolutionary be compensated. We aim to understand the importance of trained immunity in teleosts with a deficiency in their adaptive immune system by investigating immune responses on the cellular and the molecular level and focus on the syngnathids as metaorganism by unravelling the interactions with their microbes ranging from mutualistic to virulent.
Highlights
- we developed a marine model system for studying the trajectories of evolutionary novelty and host-microbe interaction, the pipefish Syngnathus typhle, Vibrio bacteria and temperate phages
- we use experimental and field work combined with comparative transcriptomics and genomics, immunology and microbiology
- we aim to disentangle sex from sex role by using the advantage of our sex-role reversed model system to test theories in the field of evolutionary biology from a different angle
- we address the selection for transfer of immunity and microbes from both father and mothers to offspring and in the differences in immune efficiency between males and females
- we expand dual host-parasite interactions to tri-partite host-parasite coevolution by focusing on pipefish, bacteria and their filamentous bacteriophages with the aim to evaluate the evolution from friendly to nasty in a tri-partite marine species interaction
CV
- 05/2021 – present: Professor at Kiel University, head of MarEvol group
- 11/2017 – 04/2021: Group Leader (tenured) at GEOMAR
- 06/2012 – 10/2017: Junior Group Leader at GEOMAR
- 01/2015 – 11/2015: Maternity leave
- 04/2009 – 05/2012: Postdoc at GEOMAR with Thorsten Reusch
- 05/2006 – 03/2009: PhD at the ETH Zurich (Switzerland) and Münster University (Germany) with Paul Schmid-Hempel and Joachim Kurtz
- 10/2004 – 04/2006: Master of Science in Animal Biology, University of Basel (Switzerland) with Dieter Ebert
- 10/2001 – 09/2004: Bachelor of Science in Organismic Biology, University of Basel (Switzerland)
Selected publications
State: 01/2023