Zoe Marie Länger

PhD Student

 

© Pixabay

Animal Evolutionary Ecology
Institute for Evolution & Biodiversity
Hüfferstr. 1
48149 Münster, Germany
z_laen01@uni-muenster.de

Nationality: German De

Education

  • Since 2023:
    PhD studies in the Animal Evolutionary Ecology Group, Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity, University of Münster, Germany
  • 2019 - 2022:
    Master of Science (M.Sc.) in Bioscience, University of Münster, Germany
    Thesis: "Proteomic and experimental approaches to the identification of Bacillus thuringiensis spore culture supernatant
    components associated with immune priming in Tribolium castaneum"
  • 2016 - 2019:
    Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) in Bioscience, University of Münster, Germany
    Thesis: "Novel or complex? Effects of cage enrichment on the behaviour of female DBA/2N and C57BL/6J mice"

Work experience

  • 2021 - 2023:
    Student Assistant, Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity, University of Münster, Germany

Supervisors

  • Prof. Dr. Joachim Kurtz, Animal Evolutionary Ecology Group, Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity, University of Münster, Germany
  • Prof. Dr. Sonja Prohaska, Computational EvoDevo Group, Institute of Computer Science, University of Leipzig, Germany
  • Dr. Barbara Feldmeyer, Evolutionary Biology, University Mainz, Germany

Research interests

  • Evolution of epigenetic regulation

  • Interaction of epigenetic regulation systems

PhD project description

Evolution of epigenetic regulation in Coleoptera

Epigenetic modifications provide a genetic basis for one and the same insect species operating in different niches and thereby showing different morphology. DNA methylation and histone posttranslational modifications are representatives of epigenetic regulation systems, both with fundamental importance for embryonic and postembryonic development. Besides both being evolutionary old mechanisms, with their major components being highly conserved, large differences can be found in the methylation marks of vertebrates and invertebrates. Insects show remarkable evolutionary flexibility in epigenetic regulation. This is particularly demonstrable in beetles (Coleoptera), where some species show CpG methylation while others lost it and accordingly partly or even completely lost genes encoding DNA methyltransferases (DNMT1 and DNMT3). Histone modifications and DNA methylation to some extent interact in order to shape the chromatin landscape. Observing the independent loss of DNMTs and DNA methylation in Ecdysozoa raises questions about the role of DNA methylation in epigenetic regulation and its integration into the system. We want to understand how tightly the DNA methylation system was coupled to the histone modification system before the repetitive losses, and which conditions drive or allow those losses. With the combined power of bioinformatics, sequencing technologies such as Enzymatic-Methyl (EM)-Seq, Cut&Tag, and RNA-Seq, and functional validation we are addressing this question, thereby aiming to identify epigenetic factors potentially linking those systems in a multi-layered -omics approach. Furthermore, we want to understand the functional role of de novo and maintenance DNA methylation, using RNAi, thereby potentially elucidating alternative functions of DNA methyltransferases. Our project addressing the surprising evolutionary flexibility in epigenetic regulation will contribute the basic knowledge of the evolution of epigenetic regulation systems even more generally, beyond insects.