Dr. Barbara Feldmeyer

Feldmeyer_2014

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Dr. Barbara Feldmeyer
Akademische Rätin/Assistant Professor
Institute for Zoology, Department of Evolutionary Biology, JGU
Johannes von Müller Weg 6, 55122 Mainz
E-mail
Web page

Research Interests

My main research interest is the genetic basis of behaviour as well as the adaptive potential of organisms in a social and environmental context:
Behaviour:
Which genes underlie the development of different ant castes, which develop from the same set of genes but differ in morphology, behavior, longevity and physiology?
Which genes are involved in raiding behaviour of slave making ants?
Which genes are involved in defense behaviour of host ants during an attack by slavemaking ants?
How are parasite induced changes in behaviour mediated on a genomic level?
Niche adaptation:
How do species adapt to certain environments?
What are physiological differences between populations of one species from different climatic origins?
What is the genetic basis of adaptation to different/similar temperature regimes?

Key techniques: RNAseq, common garden experiments, behavioural observations, qPCR

Research system/organism: Mainly species of the ant genus Temnothorax

Five Most Relevant Publications
  1. Feldmeyer B., Elsner D., S. Foitzik (2014). Gene expression patterns associated with caste and reproductive status in the ant Temnothorax longispinosus: worker-specific genes are more derived than queen-specific ones. Molecular Ecology 23:151-161. doi: 10.1111/mec.12490
  2. Schmidt H., Greshake B., Feldmeyer B., Hankeln T., M. Pfenninger (2013). Genomic basis of ecological niche divergence among cryptic sister species of non-biting midges. BMC Genomics 14:384.
  3. Feldmeyer B., C.W. Wheat, N. Krezdorn, B. Rotter, M. Pfenninger (2011). Short read Illumina data for the de novo assembly of a non-model snail species transcriptome (Radix balthica, Basommatophora, Pulmonata), and a comparison of assembler performance. BMC Genomics 12:317
  4. Pfenninger M., M. Salinger, T. Haun, B. Feldmeyer (2011). Factors and processes shaping the population structure and distribution of genetic variation across the species range of the freshwater snail Radix balthica (Pulmonata, Basommatophora). BMC Evolutionary Biology 11:135.
  5. Pen I., T. Uller, B. Feldmeyer, A. Harts, G.M. While, E. Wapstra (2010). Climate-driven population divergence in sex-determining systems. Nature 468: 436-438.