The Meyer Lab
We study several fundamental issues in evolutionary biology. In particular, the evolution of biodiversity, and specifically the genesis of genomic, developmental and morphological diversity as well as their evolutionary interconnections, are of interest to us. To this end we study: morphological differentiation and its developmental basis within a phylogenetic framework, genetic differentiation among populations and species, and the evolution of genes and genomes, and the evolution of novel gene functions. In an effort to better understand the origin and maintenance of diversity we mostly use molecular and bioinformatic approaches, to ask how many and what kind of genetic changes accompany morphological differentiation among populations and species.

News


  • Postdoctoral Position in Evolutionary Bioinformatics and Hector Academy PhD position Job opportunities Link PDF
  • Meyer lab research on Midas cichlids featured in Nicaraguan News. El Nuevo Diario. Link View PDF
  • Scale-eating cichlids from the lab receives coverage in Neue Züricher Zeitung ​More information   

Our latest publications

  • Kratochwil, C.F., Sefton, M.M., Liang, Y., and A. Meyer. 2017. Tol2 transposon-mediated transgenesis in the Midas cichlid (Amphilophus citrinellus)—towards understanding gene function and regulatory evolution in an ecological model system for rapid phenotypic diversification. BMC Developmental Biology. 17:15.
  • Lee, H.J., Schneider, R., Manousaki, T., Kang, J.H. Lein, E. Franchini, P., and A. Meyer. Lateralized feeding behavior comes with asymmetrical neuroanatomy and lateralized gene expressions in the brain in scale-eating cichlid fish. Genome Biology and Evolution (in press).
  • Torres-Dowdall, J., Pierotti, E.J., Härer, A., Karagic, N., Wootering, J.M., Henning, F., Elmer, K.R., and A. Meyer. 2017. Rapid and parallel adaptive evolution of the visual system of Neotropical Midas cichlid fishes. Molecular Biology and Evolution 34: 2469-2485.
​          all Meyer lab publications