Henrik Kaessmann Evolutionary Genomics
Our lab has been interested in a range of topics related to the origins and evolution of organs in mammals and other vertebrates as well as the various underlying genomic/molecular changes. In the framework of our research, we have generated and analyzed comprehensive genomics datasets based on samples from our large organ collections. We have thus illuminated the origins and functional evolution of protein-coding genes, alternative splicing, long noncoding RNAs, microRNAs, and sex chromosomes across organs and species, as well as associated phenotypic implications. More recently, we have begun to bring the work of our lab to the level of individual cells using state-of-the-art single-cell genomics technologies and bioinformatics procedures. In a major set of new projects, we seek to scrutinize the origins and evolution of the vertebrate brain and its constituent tissues and cell types based on samples from representatives of all major vertebrate lineages, ranging from jawless vertebrates to mammals. In other current projects, we investigate the evolution and development of gonads, liver and intestine, and the placenta across representative mammals.
Recent Research Highlights
Current Research
The evolution of the testicles is a question of of female sexual behavior.
Everything is always possible in molecular evolution. Everything happens at some point in some form.
We need big brains!
Organ differences between species therefore result from DNA sequence changes (mutations) that arise during evolution. Such mutations may modify the function of a gene – the core informational units in the DNA that are shared across species – leading to, for example, the production of more protein encoded by the gene.
In the asexual world, there is a line, so to speak, where disadvantageous mutations simply accumulate by necessity. They can no longer disappear. These organisms can no longer get rid of the bad mutations. And so, in the end, this typically leads to an evolutionary dead end.
5 Selected publications
Sepp, M., Leiss, K., Murat, F., Okonechnikov, K., Joshi, P., Leushkin, E., Spänig, L., Mbengue, N., Schneider, C., Schmidt, J., Trost, N., Schauer, M., Khaitovich, P., Lisgo, S., Palkovits, M., Giere, P., Kutscher, L. M., Anders, S., Cardoso-Moreira, M., Sarropoulos, I., Pfister, S. M., and Kaessmann, H. (2023) Cellular development and evolution of the mammalian cerebellum. Nature (online ahead of print). URL
Rodríguez-Montes, L., Ovchinnikova, S., Yuan, X., Studer, T., Sarropoulos, I., Anders, S., Kaessmann, H.*, and Cardoso-Moreira, M.* (2023) Sex-biased gene expression across mammalian organ development and evolution. Science 382:6670. *joint senior author. URL
Lamanna, F., Hervas-Sotomayor, F, Oel, A.P., Jandzik, D., Sobrido-Cameán, D., Santos-Durán, G.N., Martik, M.L., Stundl, J., Green, S.A., Brüning, T., Mößinger, K., Schmidt, J., Schneider, C., Sepp, M., Murat, F., Smith, J.J., Bronner, M.E., Rodicio, M.C., Barreiro-Iglesias, A., Medeiros, D.M., Arendt, D., and Kaessmann, H. (2023) A lamprey neural cell type atlas illuminates the origins of the vertebrate brain. Nat. Ecol. Evol. 10:1714-1728. URL
Murat, F., Mbengue, N., Boeg Winge, S., Trefzer, T., Leushkin, E., Sepp, M., Cardoso-Moreira, M., Schmidt, J., Schneider, C., Mößinger, K., Brüning, T., Lamanna, F., Riera Belles, M., Conrad, C., Kondova, I., Bontrop, R., Behr, R., Khaitovich, P., Pääbo, S., Marques-Bonet, T., Grützner, F., Almstrup, K., Heide Schierup, M., Kaessmann, H. (2022) The molecular evolution of spermatogenesis across mammals. Nature 613:308-316. URL
Sarropoulos, I., Sepp, M., Frömel, R., Leiss, K., Trost, N., Leushkin, E., Okonechnikov, K., Joshi, P., Giere, P., Kutscher, L.M., Cardoso-Moreira, M., Pfister, S.M., and Kaessmann, H. (2021) Developmental and evolutionary dynamics of cis-regulatory elements in mouse cerebellar cells. Science 373:eabg4696. URL