The Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity (IEB) integrates groups working on evolutionary ecology of animals and plants, (molecular) phylogeny and evolution, aquatic ecology, biocomplexity, and evolutionary bioinformatics. Our core question is "how biodiversity and biocomplexity at all levels of the biological hierarchy arises through evolutionary processes".

Example research at the IEB [ reload to see more ]

Description: Which seagrass genes could have facilitated their evolution towards a fully submerged lifestyle? Molecular evolution analysis contrasting two seagrass species with terrestrial flowering plants. The goal was to identify seagrass genetic adaptations in genes shared by all plant species that might have facilitated the transition from a terrestrial to a completely submerged lifestyle in marine habitats.Multiple sequence alignments were constructed for orthologous gene coding sequences shared by 10 angiosperm species. Within a maximum likelihood framework, we could ultimately identify pathways and groups of genes that, after the split from the terrestrial monocots, have been positively selected in seagrasses. This include photosynthesis and carbon fixation, glycolysis, translation, and various metabolic enzymes [1 ]. This is part of the research of the Evolutionary Bioinformatics Group . Find out more about Genome and Transcriptome Evolution on their research page

This is a random sample of recent research conducted by one of the groups at the IEB. Other examples can be viewed by reloading the page.