Kaiser Lab

Directors

Expressions of interest: Director at MPI EvolBio (f/m/d) — We invite expressions of interest from distinguished scientists in evolutionary biology with a bold, long-term research vision that complements our Institute. More information: www.evolbio.mpg.de/3856225/Dire...

PNAS Commentary Highlights Significance of Institute Research on Jumbo Phage–Mediated Gene Transfer

A new #PNAS Commentary spotlights our #MPI-EvolBio work: jumbo phages can transfer large mobile genetic elements between bacteria, expanding how we think about gene exchange in microbial communities.
www.evolbio.mpg.de/3858689/pnas...

ATLASea: progress on sequencing marine biodiversity Join us for the first ERGA Plenary meeting of 2026! On Monday, January 19, at 15:00 CET, Hugues Roest Crollius will present an update on the progress of the ATLASea program, which aims to unlock the p...

Join us on Monday at 15:00 CET for the first @ergabiodiv.bsky.social Plenary meeting of 2026!
Hugues Roest Crollius will present an update on the progress of the French marine #genomes ATLASea programme
www.erga-biodiversity.eu/post/atlasea... #biodiversity #genomics

@sangerinstitute.bsky.social @ergabiodiv.bsky.social @ebpgenome.bsky.social @biogeneurope.bsky.social

#evolution #ecology #biodiversity #ReferenceGenome #squamata #podarcis

Happy to share exciting work by my colleague Nathalie Feiner @mpi-evolbio.bsky.social, and coauthors @joanameier.bsky.social, @nataliazajac.bsky.social, Guannan Wen, Tobias Uller & more.

Also see their preprint on #lizard (& snake) #genomics:
ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v...

🦎🦎🦎🦎🦎🦎🦎🦎🦎🦎= 10 #genomes

The Earth BioGenome Project: Building the Ultimate Library of Life Earth is full of amazing life forms, from giant whales to tiny microbes. Scientists want to understand and protect this biodiversity—but first, they need to know what is out there. That is where the E...

Frontiers for Young Minds now has a plain and concise introduction to the Earth BioGenome Project! @ebpgenome.bsky.social
Good read for older kids and the general public!

#SciCom #STEM #Biodiversity #Genome #Conservation

kids.frontiersin.org/articles/10....

What a cool way to get people engaged with #population #genomics!

But why is there no episode on parentage analysis ... ?

#Conservation #EvoBio #R
#MayTheForceBeWithYou #StarWars #LukeSkywalker
@lauradbertola.bsky.social @drobledoruiz.bsky.social @seaprof.bsky.social @robynshaw.bsky.social

🎓 IMPRS EvolBio opens its 2026 PhD call! Up to 10 doctoral positions in evolutionary biology at MPI-EB — work in an international, cutting-edge research environment where others go on vacation. Start: Sept 2026 | Deadline: Jan 11, 2026 👉
www.evolbio.mpg.de/3848518/impr... #PhD #EvolutionaryBiology

A very interesting piece on the evolution of #photoperiodism and its relation to #circadian #clocks by Luisa Jabbur @jabbur.bsky.social and Carl Johnson.

Big congratulations to Dr Nikhil Sharma on receiving the Kiel Life Science Postdoc Award 2025! His outstanding work in theoretical biology and evolutionary graph theory makes us proud. Well deserved! 👏 #KLS #MPIEvolBio
www.evolbio.mpg.de/3847270/kiel...

(Photo: Christian Urban, Kiel University)

Rajalekshmi N. Sarma (MPI EvolBio) will be speaking at Kiel University’s Night of the Profs this Friday!
Catch her Science Show talk at 21:00 in the Frederik-Paulsen Lecture Hall.
Free admission — bring your friends and family!
More info: uni-kiel.de/de/veranstaltungen/night-of-the-profs
(CAU Kiel)

Big cheers from MPI for Evolutionary Biology! 🎉
Our alumna Dr. Christin Nyhoegen wins the KlarText Prize 2025 for her piece “Penicillin and a Small Dose of Mathematics.”
She shows how math helps improve antibiotic treatments and prevent resistance. 👏
#KlarTextPreis #MPIEvolBio #ScienceCommunication

WE ARE HIRING!
Please spread widely!

#Postdoc in #Evolutionary #Genomics
-> www.mpg.de/25524526/

#Postdoc in #Molecular #Biology & #Cell #Signalling
-> www.mpg.de/25524509/

@mpi-evolbio.bsky.social @maxplanck.de

#ScienceJobs #EvoBio #MolBio #Ecology #Chronobiology #Marine #EntoSky #Biodiversity

How to get the best night’s sleep: what the science says Chuck the gadgets, the fads and the alarm. Circadian research reveals how important your body’s internal clock is to blissful slumber.

"Chuck the gadgets, the fads and the alarm."

The importance of the #circadian #clock for human #sleep, covered in a recent News Feature in #Nature.

Must read.

#chronobiology #ScienceMatters

Our current follow-up #modelling study with @gokhalecs.bsky.social, former colleague @mpi-evolbio.bsky.social, suggests that larval competition for space can actually drive the evolution of divergent reproductive timing, aka #allochrony, which results in spatial separation and reduced competition.

Previous work with @kokkonut.bsky.social (tinyurl.com/28hxwree) showed that #sympatric Clunio strains reproduce AT full #moon or BEFORE new moon. During these times low tide levels differ, placing the eggs & larvae at different elevations. This spatial separation allows #coexistence of the strains:

How competition can drive allochronic divergence: a case study in the marine midge, Clunio marinus Synchronizing mating to extrinsic environmental cycles can increase the chance of successful reproduction. However, the resulting temporally-assorted mating may precipitate speciation if coupled with ...

How can larval #competition for space, adult #reproductive #timing and the #tides interact to produce different timing strains, aka #chronotypes, of the marine insect #Clunio?

See our latest preprint with Alec Jacobsen & @gokhalecs.bsky.social

#evolution #ecology #chronobiology #circalunar #clock

Behavioral circatidal rhythms require Bmal1 in Parhyale hawaiensis Animals living near the coastline rely on circatidal clocks to predict the tides. The mechanism underlying these timers is not known. Kwiatkowski et al. introduce P. hawaiensis as a model to study the...

Parhyale is also a powerful model for the study of #circatidal #rhythms! #Chronobiology

See:

www.cell.com/current-biol...

www.cell.com/current-biol...

Could humans and AI one day form a single “evolutionary individual”? Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology raise this question in a new publication exploring human–AI interdependence.
www.evolbio.mpg.de/3836073/news...

@mpi-evolbio.bsky.social
@juleneumann.bsky.social
@cperalta.bsky.social

#Evolution #MarineEcology #Ecology #Chronobiology #moon #tides #marine #nature #insect #EntoSky #SciCom

YouTube video by Naturwunder erklärt Unglaublich: Clunio marinus & das Geheimnis des Mondes! 🌕🦟

Years of work distilled to 1 minute:
Our recent paper with @kokkonut.bsky.social has made it to #youtube !

The AI illustrations do not look anything like real-life #Clunio - but they are captivating.

And the scientific content is accurate and well explained!

Original paper: tinyurl.com/28hxwree

Die Mücke und der Mond Die Meeresmücke Clunio marinus im Rhythmus der Gezeiten

Here is a nice piece on #Clunio #biology and #rhythms by @ulrikegebhardt.bsky.social
- including some of our #research @mpi-evolbio.bsky.social
with @juleneumann.bsky.social and @kokkonut.bsky.social.

(In German only.)

#chronobiology #moon #MarineEcology #Science #SciCom
#taktvoll #Mond #Natur

Today @ #EBRS2025:
Session #EVOLUTION (2pm, AM4)

D Doležel: #clock gene evolution
MP Shahandeh: #circadian #plasticity
S Reece: #parasite #rhythms
A Schneider: #olfactory #membrane #clockworks
A Coric: L-Cry & #circalunar #timing
C Kyriacou: Cry & #magnetic fields

Hosts: E Nagoshi & T Kaiser

Curious how the #moon is perceived, controls #development, and may drive #speciation in a #marine #insect?

Check our posters at #EBRS2025:

> P107 (Tue) @juleneumann.bsky.social
> P135 (Tue)
> P196 (Thu) @kokkonut.bsky.social @gokhalecs.bsky.social

#chronobiology #circalunar #evolution #ecology

Temporal niche partitioning: Mechanism of coexistence or competitive exclusion via priority effects? Temporal niche partitioning receives increasing attention as a potential mechanism of coexistence. Here, I highlight recent research on a unique marine midge system that reveals the opposite: differe...

Our work with @kokkonut.bsky.social on #temporal #niches and #coexistence in #Clunio (see tinyurl.com/bderptbr and tinyurl.com/28hxwree) has been featured in a Research Highlight @animalecology.bsky.social:

besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

#ecology #evolution #chronobiology

One week to go until #EBRS2025 in #Lübeck!
We are very much looking forward to exciting #chronobiology!

#circatidal #circadian #circalunar #circannual

Sessions on:
-> #Evolution
-> Short and long #clocks
-> Clocks in the #wild
-> #Seasonality

... and many more:
ebrs-online.org/index.php/ev...

Jule, thank you for all your contributions to the group - and to the institute - over all those years! All the best for the next steps!

There is also a really nice thread by @kokkonut.bsky.social giving more details to our two joint papers on how #timing by the #moon allows #coexistence in a #marine #midge:

tinyurl.com/bderptbr
tinyurl.com/28hxwree

#Ecology #Evobio #Chronobiology

Click below for the full thread!

A big thank you to everyone involved in this!
It was great fun!

Coexistence by Moonlight: How Midges Divide Time and Space How can different ecologically specialised populations of the same species—so-called ecotypes—coexist within the same habitat and even evolve into distinct species over time? This fundamental question...

Please also check the press release @mpi-evolbio.bsky.social:

www.evolbio.mpg.de/3828955/news...