Centre for Molecular Biodiversity Research (ZMB)

Funding:

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft

2016

[90]

3D AMP [90]

This plugin works with ImageJ and Fiji. You can use most kinds of (hyper)stacks with one or more channels in the commonimage formats.

Project lead:

Jörg Adrian [91]

[92]

Biodiversity of Heterobranc... [92]

Biodiversity of marine heterobranchs of South Iranian shore lines and the Persian Gulf

Project lead:

Funding:

Alexander-Koenig-Society e.V.

2015

[93]

Opisthobranch Biodiversity in Indonesia [93]

The Indonesian coastline is characterized by an extremely high biodiversity. This project focusses on a specific bio-system, i.e. Opisthobranchia, their prey organisms, and the associated microorganisms. Based on our knowledge on systematics and ecology of these organisms, the final goal is to identify new drug leads for antibiotics development in a cooperation with colleagues from the Pharmaceutical Biology of the university of Bonn. Sea slugs, forced by the absence of a protective shell, developed highly specialized defense strategies to protect their sensitive epidermis against micro and small organisms, as well as larger predators like fish and crabs. Especially chemical substances fulfill this protective role.

Project lead:

Funding:

Federal Ministry of Education and Research

2014

[94]

Countering Systematic Bias in Phylogenetics [94]

PhyQuart, a new algorithm combining Hennigian logic and Maximum Likelihood estimation, represents a completely new strategy for the evaluation of molecular data based on a site pattern classification for quartets of aligned sequences.

Project lead:

Funding:

Zoological Research Museum Alexander Koenig, European Union

[96]

Evolution of chemical mimikry… [96]

By comparing the cuticular hydrocarbon bouquet of cuckoo wasps and their hosts, the occurence and significance of chemical mimicry in parasitoid wasps will be assessed.

Funding:

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft

[97]

Evolutionary origin of… [97]

By sequencing and analyzing the genome of a twisted-wing parasite, it was possible to infer the evolutionary roots of this enigmatic group of insects (order Strepsiptera). This ended a two-centuries-long debate about the phylogenetic affinities of these i

Funding:

Zoological Research Museum Alexander Koenig

[98]

Incorporation of chloroplasts in Sacoglossa [98]

Some sea slugs incorporate chloroplasts from their algal food in their own body and perform photosynthesis with these „cleptoplastids“. They survive weeks to months without any further food uptake.

Project lead:

Funding:

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft

[99]

Island speciation within the… [99]

Landsnails of the genus Theba show an endemic radiation on the Canary Islands and the adjacent West African Continent.

Project lead:

[100]

Evolution of defense strategies in sea slugs [100]

Sea slugs have lost their protective shell and evolved alternative defense strategies against predators (toxins, acids, needles, etc). We investigate these strategies

Project lead:

Funding:

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft

[101]

Genome sequencing sheds light… [101]

The sequencing and analysis of the genomes of basal hexapods will shed light on the evolution of winged insects.

Funding:

Zoological Research Museum Alexander Koenig

[102]

Bumbuna Phase II Project [102]

Baseline Study and Ecological Monitoring before and after the inundation of the Bumbuna Hydroelectric Project Reservoir.

Project lead:

Dr. Jan Decher [103]

Funding:

Combined Ecology, BTO Services Ltd., UK

[104]

Evolution of Photosynthesis in Sacoglossa [104]

The loss of the shell in sea slugs enabled the evolution of photosynthetic capability within some groups, but also enforced the evolution of alternative defense strategies. We investigate the origin and efficiency of these various strategies.

Project lead:

Funding:

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Zoological Research Museum Alexander Koenig, Alexander-Koenig-Society e.V.

[105]

Immunobiology of the marine… [105]

Investigation of the innate immune system of the heterobranch genus Aplysia.

Project lead:

Funding:

Zoological Research Museum Alexander Koenig

2013

[106]

Gene repertoire Characterization [106]

Comparative genomics is in its infancy. Genome sequencing just now generates the data to compare not only model organisms and vertebrates but to actually assess biodiversity. Explaining biodiversity relies on an understanding of underlying mechanisms of genome evolution, which in turn is based on a thorough knowledge of genomic characters and the driving forces shaping them.

Project lead:

Funding:

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft

[107]

AliGROOVE – visualization of heterogeneous sequence divergence [107]

AliGROOVE determines and visualizes the content of potentially randomized sequence similarities and alignment ambiguities in multiple sequence alignments.The AliGROOVE algorithm is an adaptation of the recently published ALISCORE masking algorithm (Misof & Misof, 2009, Kück et al., 2010). AliGROOVE summarizes site scores of profiles of sequence similarity normalized over the whole alignment length from each pairwise comparison and translates the obtained scoring distances between sequences into a similarity Matrix

Project lead:

Funding:

Zoological Research Museum Alexander Koenig

2012

[108]

Development of an Improved… [108]

We are improving published orthology prediction pipelines in order to further automate the process in large scale phylogenomic analyses. This work is basically bioinformatic work and involves the generation of scripting pipelines and wrappers around existing software packages. An essential part of this work is the comparative analyses of the effects of different orthology prediction strategies on the derivation of 1:1 orthologs of transcriptome projects.

Project lead:

[109]

The phylogeny of Hymenopterans [109]

Hymenoptera are a mega-diverse order of endopterygote insects and encompass more than 120,000 described species.

[110]

Selection of Optimal Subsets… [110]

In phylogenomics character matrices with extensive missing data are frequently used. These missing data have potentially detrimental effects on the accuracy and robustness of tree inference. Therefore, many investigators select taxa and genes with high data coverage.

Project lead:

[111]

Are cichlid species complexes… [111]

Inter- and intraspecific gene flow is increasingly recognized as an important factor shaping diversification and speciation.

Project lead:

Dr. Julia Schwarzer [88]

[112]

Identification of sources of error in molecular phylogenetic analyses [112]

The aim of our study was to test the robustness and efficiency of maximum likelihood with respect to different long branch effects on multiple-taxon trees.

Project lead:

Funding:

Zoological Research Museum Alexander Koenig

[113]

Pattern and processes of… [113]

Project lead:

Funding:

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft

[114]

Phylogenetic position of… [114]

Project lead:

Dr. Torsten Struck [65]

Funding:

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft

[115]

Leaf beetles - Chrysomelidae [115]

Transcriptome analysis of leaf beetles.

Project lead:

Funding:

University of Hamburg

[116]

Global Genome Biodiversity Network (GGBN) [116]

Establishing standards for the preservation of molecular samples and molecular biodiversity.

Project lead:

[117]

1KITE: The evolution of the… [117]

Insects are one of the most species-rich groups of metazoan organisms. They play a pivotal role in most non-marine ecosystems and many insect species are of enormous economical and medical importance. Unraveling the evolution of insects is essential for understanding how life in terrestrial and limnic environments evolved. The 1KITE (1K Insect Transcriptome Evolution) project aims to study the transcriptomes (that is the entirety of expressed genes) of 1,000 insect species encompassing all recognized insect orders. For each species, so-called ESTs (Expressed Sequence Tags) will be produced…

Project lead:

2011

[118]

GBOL- German Barcode of Life [118]

"German Barcode of Life" ( GBOL ) is a project sponsored by the BMBF and includes the creation of inventories for the gentic characterization of the animals, fungi and plants of germany, using DNA-Barcodes.

Project lead:

Prof. Dr. J. Wolfgang Wägele [119]

Funding:

Federal Ministry of Education and Research

[120]

Sacoglossa-Evolution of their… [120]

Project lead:

Funding:

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft

[121]

Evolution and diversity of… [121]

The cuticle of insects is coated with a layer of waxes that serves as protection against desiccation.

Funding:

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft

[122]

AnnEvol - Evolution and… [122]

Project lead:

Dr. Torsten Struck [65]

Funding:

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft

[123]

Trachysphaera Dwarf Pill Millipedes in the UK [123]

Less than 30 years ago, an isolated population of thwe dwarf pill millipede genus Trachysphaera was discovered on the English Isle of Wight, which were tentatively identified as T. lobata (Ribaut, 1954), albeit male specimens were lacking (Joes & Keay 1986 ). T. lobata is a species known mainly from SE France (Kime & Enghoff 2011), and is difficult to distinguish from four other little known Trachysphaera species occurring at the Spanish-French border, which are above all the very similar T. pyrenaica (Ribaut, 1907), as well as the little known T. rousseti (Demange, 1959), T.

Project lead:

Dr. Thomas Wesener [124]

[125]

i5K-Initiative [125]

In 2011, the international i5K initiative was launched (Robinson et al. 2011). The initiative has the ambitious goal within the next five years to sequence and analyze the genomes of 5,000 insects.

Project lead:

[126]

FREDIE - Freshwater Diversity… [126]

Freshwater Diversity Identification for Europe: Barcoding all European freshwater fishes, freshwater molluscs and mayflies.

Project lead:

Dr. Fabian Herder [127]

Funding:

Leibniz Association

[128]

Fluoreszenzmicroscopical and… [128]

Project lead:

Funding:

Alexander Koenig Stiftung, Alexander-Koenig-Society e.V.

[129]

Automated masking of AFLP markers [129]

AMARE is designed to optimize the signal-to-noise ratio in AFLP data sets (single or multiple primer combinations). It identifies potentially erroneous AFLP genotyping errors as the number of non-reproducible scored markers between replicated AFLP profiles of single individuals. As a measure of overall data quality, it simultaneously estimates general replicate error rates.

Project lead:

Funding:

Zoological Research Museum Alexander Koenig

2010

[130]

Molecular Weevil Identification [130]

DNA barcoding the European weevil fauna and building molecular and morphological weevil collections

Project lead:

[131]

The evolution of… [131]

We try to reconstruct a robust backbone tree of holometabolous insects based on extensive transcriptome/genome data. With our transcriptome data we cover all orders within these group of insects and optimize the procedures of tree inference based on these data. Additionally, Rolf Beutel's group is providing extensive 3D morphological data of head, thorax and abdominal structures. Together we are working on the most extensive morphological and molecular data addressing the above mentioned phylogenetic questions. Within this project we have also started to specifically address the "Strepsiptera…

Project lead:

Funding:

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft

2009

[132]

The Atelocerata - a vanishing… [132]

Project lead:

Funding:

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft

[133]

The legacy of Southern Ocean… [133]

Project lead:

Dr. Christoph Mayer [31]

Funding:

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft

[134]

MITOS [134]

A metazoan mitochondrial genome annotation server.

Project lead:

Funding:

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, German Academic Exchange Service, University of Strasbourg, ANR MITOMOT, Alexander von Humboldt-Foundation

[135]

ALISCORE - Masking of Multiple Sequence Alignments [135]

Random similarity of sequences or sequence sections can impede phylogenetic analyses or the identification of gene homologies.

Project lead:

Funding:

Zoological Research Museum Alexander Koenig

2008

[136]

Sacoglossa [136]

Project lead:

Funding:

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft

2007

[137]

Patterns and processes of a… [137]

Project lead:

Funding:

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft

[138]

Secondary Metabolites of… [138]

Project lead:

Funding:

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft

[139]

DNA Bank Network [139]

Project lead:

Funding:

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft

[140]

Diversification in space and… [140]

Project lead:

Funding:

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft

[141]

Integrative taxonomy in cryptic weevils [141]

Integrative taxonomy and DNA barcoding in western Palearctic weevils of the subfamily Cryptorhynchinae

Project lead: