Dr. Andreas Kautt

IMPRS Alumni
Harvard University, USA

Main Focus

My main research interest is the process of speciation, specifically the genome-wide dynamics of divergence-with-gene-flow and the genetic bases of adaptive traits. My research addresses questions such as how many loci are typically involved in adaptive traits and do they normally cluster together or are they distributed randomly among the genome? Do the genetic changes that are involved in adaptive divergence have to be acquired de-novo or did they already pre-exist as standing genetic variation in the ancestral population? Are there special genomic features that facilitate divergence by reducing recombination between co-adapted loci? Knowledge about these aspects is sorely needed if we want to understand how readily and fast populations can adapt to new environments and why speciation rates are so different even among closely related taxa.

PhD thesis

Genome-wide Patterns of Adaptation and Speciation and Demographic Histories of Young Radiations of Cichlids, with Axel Meyer, Zoology and Evolutionary Biology lab, University of Konstanz

Curriculum Vitae

  • 04/2016 - present: Postdoctoral Researcher, Research Group of Prof. Axel Meyer, University of Konstanz
  • 09/2011 - 04/2016: Ph.D. student in Evolutionary Biology, Research Group of Prof. Axel Meyer, University of Konstanz (enrolled in the IMPRS for Organsimal Biology)
  • 10/2008 - 12/2010: M.Sc. in Biological Sciences, University of Konstanz
  • 10/2005 - 08/2008: B.Sc. in Biological Sciences, University of Konstanz
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