The overwhelming and fascinating diversity of organisms on Earth, their way of life and their interactions are the result of evolution. The study of this process is therefore of central importance for our understanding of biological diversity, especially against the background of the immense influence of humans on their natural environment. The Institute of Organismic and Molecular Evolutionary Biology therefore focuses on the analysis of the processes of evolutionary change.
The research focus of the individual working groups includes evolutionary changes in genes and proteins, the evolution of social behavior, symbiotic and parasitic associations, life course strategies and human populations, as well as the process of speciation. For a comprehensive understanding of evolutionary processes, all levels of organismic complexity are examined, from the individual gene to organisms, populations and species in nature. Accordingly, the broad spectrum of methods includes fieldwork, morphological, chemical, biochemical and population genetic approaches as well as genetic, genomic, transcriptomic and phylogenetic analyses and their bioinformatic evaluation.
