Dr. Karen Meusemann

Scientific Research Assistant

Directorate Staff

Tel: +49 228 9122-307

Fax: +49 228 9122-212

Mail: k.meusemann [at] leibniz-lib.de

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Profile

Field of work

Since April 2021 I am working as a Scientific Research Assistant at the LIB (Bonn, ZFMK). My areas of responsibility include the internal exchange within the LIB between the scientists between the different sites in Bonn and between Bonn and Hamburg, organization, support of projects, assistance of the directorate and the directorate staff, committee work & reporting, support of the graduate school, establishment and support of our mentoring program, etc. Furthermore, I am involved in various projects at the LIB (1KITE, Evolution of Ricefish, Molecular Methods, Evolution of Dexiarchia, etc.).

My scientific focus is on molecular biodiversity research, especially on phylogenomics and transcriptomics of diverse insect groups ( Basal Hexapods, Neuropterida, Mecoptera, Antliophora, Diptera). I am in particular interested in the establishment of new methods and critical evaluation of data sets.

After my Diploma (karyology in Agrodiaetus, Lycenidaeblue butterflies) I did my PhD within the SPP "Deep Metazoan Phylogeny" at the zmb (Centre for Molecular Biodiversity Research, ZFMK Supervision: Prof. Dr. B. Misof) from 2005 - 2012 in the field of molecular phylogenomics of "basal" hexapods and myriapods. Furthermore, I am co-founder and co-coordinator in international 1KITE (www.kite.org(link is external)) and with focus on phylogenomics in insects and method development (transcriptomics). After working on phylogenomics of Diptera & Antliophora from 2013 - 2016 at the Australian National Insect Collection (CSIRO, Canberra), I was Scientific Coordinator of the Research Group (Sociality and the reversal of the fecundity-longevity trade-off: www.so-long.org(link is external)) in the AG Prof. Dr. J. Korb at the University of Freiburg from 2016 - 2020.

Research interests

Project and science management, project coordination and organization in the area biodiversity research, science-policy interactions, molecular evolution, phylogenomics, hexapods, speciation, hybridization, systematics & taxonomy

Memberships

Gesellschaft für Biologische Systematik (GfBS), Deutsche Zoologische Gesellschaft (DZG)

External websites and profiles

http://www.meusemann.de/

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=uK45QqgAAAAJ&hl=de

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Karen-Meusemann

https://twitter.com/karenmeusemann

https://linkedin.com/in/karen-meusemann

Projects

2022

SIGI

We initiated SIGI to leverage emerging genomic tools to understand the ecology and evolution of soil invertebrates, their role in ecosystems and soil functions, to develop sustainable management procedures, and to provide resources for bioeconomy.This is a collaboration with the LOEWE Centre for Translational Biodiversity Genomics (lead: M. Balint, Senckenberg). Photo: Andy Murray (German pauropod). Photo: German Pauropod, Andy Murray.

Unit:

Directorate Staff

Project lead:

Dr. Karen Meusemann

2017

AG RICEFISH

The focus of the proposed research group is to study the link between genotype and phenotype of evolutionary adaptive traits, a vital question of evolutionary biology in the postgenomic era. The group will study the morphological and genomic basis of a unique reproduction strategy in Sulawesi ricefishes (Actinopterygii: Adrianichthyidae) called “pelvic brooding”. In pelvic brooding species, females carry the eggs in an abdominal concavity until they hatch, which is assumed to be an adaptation to a predominantly pelagic lifestyle.

Unit:

Evolutionary Genomics, Centre for Taxonomy and Morphology (ztm), Centre for Molecular Biodiversity Research (zmb), Directorate, Chair Systematic Zoology, Ichthyology, Directorate Staff

Project lead:

Dr. Julia Schwarzer

Funding:

Leibniz Association

Evolution of Dexiarchia

The sea slugs of the subgroup Dexiarchia comprise at least 2,000 different species and many more undescribed members. Until today there exists no phylogenetic analysis of Dexiarchia that comprises all major families and corroborates the relationships within this group, which is the aim of our project.

Unit:

Computational Genomics, High-performance Computing, Phylogenetics and Evolutionary Biology, Morphology Laboratory, Chair Molecular Biodiversity Research

Project lead:

Dr. Alexander Donath

Funding:

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft

2014

The phylogeny of Holometabola

The Holometabola are the insects with complete metamorphosis (larva, pupa, adult) and comprise > 60% of the described animal species. The project aims at solving the open questions in the phylogeny of the group, in order to get a better understanding of t

Unit:

Hymenoptera, Directorate, Chair Systematic Zoology, Directorate Staff

Project lead:

Dr. Ralph S. Peters

Funding:

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft

2012

MARE

In phylogenomics character matrices with extensive missing data are frequently used. These missing data have potentially detrimental effects on the accuracy and robustness of tree inference. Therefore, many investigators select taxa and genes with high data coverage.

Unit:

Directorate, Chair Systematic Zoology, Directorate Staff

Project lead:

Prof. Dr. Bernhard Misof

1KITE: The evolution of the insects

Insects are one of the most species-rich groups of metazoan organisms. They play a pivotal role in most non-marine ecosystems and many insect species are of enormous economical and medical importance. Unraveling the evolution of insects is essential for understanding how life in terrestrial and limnic environments evolved. The 1KITE (1K Insect Transcriptome Evolution) project aims to study the transcriptomes (that is the entirety of expressed genes) of 1,000 insect species encompassing all recognized insect orders. For each species, so-called ESTs (Expressed Sequence Tags) will be produced…

Unit:

Directorate, Chair Systematic Zoology, Directorate Staff, Biodiversity Informatics, Computational Genomics, High-performance Computing, Statistical Phylogenetics and Phylogenomics, Staff Council, Centre for Biodiversity Monitoring and Conservation Science (zbm), Education, Biobank, Hymenoptera, Chair Molecular Biodiversity Research, Centre for Molecular Biodiversity Research (zmb)

Project lead:

Prof. Dr. Bernhard Misof

2010

The evolution of…

We try to reconstruct a robust backbone tree of holometabolous insects based on extensive transcriptome/genome data. With our transcriptome data we cover all orders within these group of insects and optimize the procedures of tree inference based on these data. Additionally, Rolf Beutel's group is providing extensive 3D morphological data of head, thorax and abdominal structures. Together we are working on the most extensive morphological and molecular data addressing the above mentioned phylogenetic questions. Within this project we have also started to specifically address the "Strepsiptera…

Unit:

Directorate, Chair Systematic Zoology, Directorate Staff, Hymenoptera, Graduate School (GBR)

Project lead:

Prof. Dr. Bernhard Misof

Funding:

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft

FASconCAT - convenient handling of data matrices

FASconCAT is a user-friendly software that concatenates rapidly different kinds of sequence data into one supermatrix file.

Unit:

Algorithmic Development, Chair Molecular Biodiversity Research

Project lead:

Dr. Patrick Kück

Funding:

Zoological Research Museum Alexander Koenig

2009

The Atelocerata - a vanishing…

Berlese pitfalls

Unit:

Directorate, Chair Systematic Zoology, Directorate Staff

Project lead:

Prof. Dr. Bernhard Misof

Funding:

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft

ALISCORE - Masking of Multiple Sequence Alignments

Random similarity of sequences or sequence sections can impede phylogenetic analyses or the identification of gene homologies.

Unit:

Directorate, Chair Systematic Zoology, Algorithmic Development, Directorate Staff, Biodiversity Informatics

Project lead:

Prof. Dr. Bernhard Misof

Funding:

Zoological Research Museum Alexander Koenig

Publications

A full publication list can be found at Google Scholar

Published in

2018

Rakitov, R., Moysa, A.A., Kopylov, A.T., Moshkovskii, S.A., Peters, R.S., Meusemann, K., Misof, B., Dietrich, C.H., Johnson, K.P., Podsiadlowski, L., Walden, K.KO. (2018): Brochosomins and other novel proteins from brochosomes of leafhoppers (Insecta, Hemiptera, Cicadellidae). Insect Biochemistry and Molecular Biology 94, 10-17. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ibmb.2018.01.001

[more]

Johnson, K.P., Dietrich, C.H., Friedrich, F., Beutel, R.G., Wipfler, B., Peters, R.S., Allen, J.M., Petersen, M., Donath, A., Walden, K.K.O., Kozlov, A.M., Podsiadlowski, L., Mayer, C., Meusemann, K., Vasilikopoulos, A., Waterhouse, R.M., Cameron, S.L., Weirauch, C., Swanson, D.R., Percy, D.M., Hardy, N.B., Terry, I., Liu, S., Zhou, X., Misof, B., Robertson, H.M., Yoshizawa, K., (2018): Phylogenomics and the evolution of hemipteroid insects. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences: 201815820.

[more]

2017

Petersen, M., Meusemann, K., Donath, A., Dowling, D., Liu, S., Peters, R.S., Podsiadlowski, L., Vasilikopoulos, A., Zhou, X., Misof, B., Niehuis, O. (2017): Orthograph: a versatile tool for mapping coding nucleotide sequences to clusters of orthologous genes. BMC Bioinformatics. 18(1), 111. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12859-017-1529-8

[more]

Bank, S., Sann, M., Mayer, C., Meusemann, K., Donath, A., Podsiadlowski, L., Kozlov, A., Petersen, M., Krogmann, L., Meier, R., Rosa, P., Schmitt, T., Wurdack, M., Liu, S., Zhou, X., Misof, B., Peters, R.S., Niehuis, O., (2017): Transcriptome and target DNA enrichment sequence data provide new insights into the phylogeny of vespid wasps (Hymenoptera: Aculeata: Vespidae). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 116, 213–226. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2017.08.020

[more]

Dowling, D., Pauli, T., Donath, A., Meusemann, K., Podsiadlowski, L., Petersen, M., Peters, R.S., Mayer, C., Liu, S., Zhou, X., Misof, B., Niehuis, O. (2017): Phylogenetic Origin and Diversification of RNAi Pathway Genes in Insects. Genome Biology and Evolution 8(12), 3784-3793. doi:10.1093/gbe/evw281

[more]

Peters, R.S., Krogmann, L., Mayer, C., Donath, A., Gunkel, S., Meusemann, K., Kozlov, A., Podsiadlowski, L., Petersen, M., Lanfear, R., Diez, P.A., Heraty, J., Kjer, K.M., Klopfstein, S., Meier, R., Polidori, C., Schmitt, T., Liu, S., Zhou, X., Wappler, T., Rust, J., Misof, B., Niehuis, O. (2017): Evolutionary History of the Hymenoptera. Current Biology. 27, 1013–1018. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2017.01.027

[more]

2016

Pauli, T., Vedder, L., Dowling, D., Petersen, M., Meusemann, K., Donath, A., Peters, R.S., Podsiadlowski, L., Mayer, C., Liu, S., Zhou, X., Heger, P., Wiehe, T., Hering, L., Mayer, G., Misof, B., Niehuis, O. (2016): Transcriptomic data from panarthropods shed new light on the evolution of insulator binding proteins in insects. BMC Genomics 17, 861. doi:10.1186/s12864-016-3205-1

[more]

Mayer, C., Sann, M., Donath, A., Meixner, M., Podsiadlowski, L., Peters, R.S., Petersen, M., Meusemann, K., Liere, K., Wägele, J.-W., Misof, B., Bleidorn, C., Ohl, M., Niehuis, O. (2016): BaitFisher: A software package for multispecies target DNA enrichment probe design. Molecular Biology and Evolution doi:10.1093/molbev/msw056

[more]

2015

Kjer KM, Ware JL, Rust J, Wappler T, Lanfear R, Jermiin LS, Zhou X, Aspöck H, Aspöck U, Beutel RG, Blanke A, Donath A, Flouri T, Frandsen PB, Kapli P, Kawahara AY, Letsch H, Mayer C, McKenna DD, Meusemann K, Niehuis O, Peters RS, Wiegmann BM, Yeates DK, von Reumont BM, Stamatakis A, Misof B. (2015): INSECT PHYLOGENOMICS. Response to Comment on "Phylogenomics resolves the timing and pattern of insect evolution". – Science 349: 487.

[more]

2014

Bernhard Misof, Shanlin Liu, Karen Meusemann, Ralph S. Peters, Alexander Donath, Christoph Mayer, Paul B. Frandsen, Jessica Ware, Tomáš Flouri, Rolf G. Beutel, Oliver Niehuis, Malte Petersen, Fernando Izquierdo-Carrasco, Torsten Wappler, Jes Rust, Andre J. Aberer, Ulrike Aspöck, Horst Aspöck, Daniela Bartel, Alexander Blanke, Simon Berger, Alexander Böhm, Thomas R. Buckley, Brett Calcott, Junqing Chen, Frank Friedrich, Makiko Fukui, Mari Fujita, Carola Greve, Peter Grobe, Shengchang Gu, Ying Huang, Lars S. Jermiin, Akito Y. Kawahara, Lars Krogmann, Martin Kubiak, Robert Lanfear, Harald Letsch, Yiyuan Li, Zhenyu Li, Jiguang Li, Haorong Lu, Ryuichiro Machida, Yuta Mashimo, Pashalia Kapli, Duane D. McKenna, Guanliang Meng, Yasutaka Nakagaki, José Luis Navarrete-Heredia, Michael Ott, Yanxiang Ou, Günther Pass, Lars Podsiadlowski, Hans Pohl, Björn M. von Reumont, Kai Schütte, Kaoru Sekiya, Shota Shimizu, Adam Slipinski, Alexandros Stamatakis, Wenhui Song, Xu Su, Nikolaus U. Szucsich, Meihua Tan, Xuemei Tan, Min Tang, Jingbo Tang, Gerald Timelthaler, Shigekazu Tomizuka, Michelle Trautwein, Xiaoli Tong, Toshiki Uchifune, Manfred G. Walzl, Brian M. Wiegmann, Jeanne Wilbrandt, Benjamin Wipfler, Thomas K. F. Wong, Qiong Wu, Gengxiong Wu, Yinlong Xie, Shenzhou Yang, Qing Yang, David K. Yeates, Kazunori Yoshizawa, Qing Zhang, Rui Zhang, Wenwei Zhang, Yunhui Zhang, Jing Zhao, Chengran Zhou, Lili Zhou, Tanja Ziesmann, Shijie Zou, Yingrui Li, Xun Xu, Yong Zhang, Huanming Yang, Jian Wang, Jun Wang, Karl M. Kjer, Xin Zhou (2014): Phylogenomics resolves the timing and pattern of insect evolution. - Science 346 ( 6210): 763-767.

[more]

Links:

1KITE - Project @ ZFMK
Abstract
Reprint
Full text

Dell’Ampio, E.*, Meusemann, K.*, Szucsich, N.U.*, Peters, R.S.*, Meyer, B., Borner, J., Petersen, M., Aberer, A.J., Stamatakis, A., Walzl, M.G., Quang Minh, B., von Haeseler, A., Ebersberger, I., Pass, G., Misof, B. (2014): Decisive Datasets in Phylogenomics: Lessons from Studies on the Phylogenetic Relationships of Primarily Wingless Insects. Molecular Biology and Evolution 31 (1): 239-249 * equal contributors

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Documents:

dellampio_et_al_2014_decisive_data_sets.pdf

Peters, R.S.*, Meusemann, K.*, Petersen, M., Mayer, C., Wilbrandt, J., Ziesmann, T., Donath, A., et al. (2014): The evolutionary history of holometabolous insects inferred from transcriptome-based phylogeny and comprehensive morphological data. BMC Evolutionary Biology 14:52 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2148/14/52 * equal contributors

[more]

Links:

Link - PDF

Stocsits, R.R., Letsch, H., Meusemann, K., Von Reumont, B.M., Misof, B., Hertel, J., Tafer, H., Stadler, P. (2014): RNA in phylogenetic reconstruction. In: Wägele, J.W. and Bartolomaeus, T. (eds.): Deep Metazoan Phylogeny: The backbone of the Tree of Life. New Insights from Analyses of Molecules, Morphology, and Theory of Data Analysis. De Gruyter, pp 531-538.

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2013

BERNT M, BLEIDORN C, BRABAND A, DAMBACH J, DONATH A, FRITSCH G, GOLOMBEK A, HADRYS H, JÜHLING F, MEUSEMANN K, MITTENDORF M, MISOF B, PERSEKE M, PODSIADLOWSKI L, VON REUMONT B, SCHIERWATER B, SCHLEGEL M, SCHRÖDL M, SIMON S, STADLER PF, STÖGER I, STRUCK T (2013) A comprehensive analysis of bilaterian mitochondrial genomes and phylogeny. Mol Phylogen Evol. Early online May 2013.

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DELL’AMPIO, E., MEUSEMANN, K., SZUCSICH, N.U., PETERS, R.S., MEYER, B., BORNER, J., PETERSEN, M., ABERER A.J., STAMATAKIS, A., WALZL, M.G., MINH B.Q., VON HAESELER A., EBERSBERGER I., PASS G., MISOF B. (2013) Decisive Data Sets in Phylogenomics: Lessons from Studies on the Phylogenetic Relationships of Primarily Wingless Insects. Molecular Biology and Evolution. Advance Access publication (October 18, 2013).

[more]

Hauser, J., Kobert, K., Izquierdo-Carrasco, F., Meusemann, K., Misof, B., Gertz, M., Stamatakis, A. (2013): Heuristic Algorithms for the Protein Model Assignment Problem. Bioinformatics Research and Applications, Lectures Notes in Computer Science 7875:137-148.

[more]

Letsch HO, Meusemann K, Wipfler B, Schütte K, Beutel R, Misof B (2013). Insect phylogenomics: results, problems and the impact of data matrix composition. Proc. Royal Soc. B

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Meusemann, K., Peters, R.S. et al. (2013): Introduction to 1KITE and the first steps in the project’s workflow: aims, people, subprojects, taxon sampling and collecting. Abstract Volume 6th Dresden Meeting on Insect Phylogeny: 18-19.

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Meusemann, K., Peters, R.S., Petersen, M., Donath, A., Niehuis, O., Mayer, C., Aspöck, U. et al. (2013): Phylogeny of the holometabolous insect orders – new insights from transcriptomes and morphology. BioSyst.EU 2013 Global systematics! 18-22 February 2013 Abstract volume: 139-140.

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Niehuis, O., Sann, M., Mayer, C., Meusemann, K., Donath, A., Peters, R.S., Bleidorn, C., Ohl, M. (2013): Potential and limits of the 1KITE transcript data for facilitating the application of DNA enrichment protocols in insect phylogenetics. Abstract Volume 6th Dresden Meeting on Insect Phylogeny.

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Pages

Short Scientific CV

since 04/2021: Scientific Assistant at the Leibniz Institute for the Analyses of Biodiversity Change - Zoological Research Museum A. Koenig, Bonn, Germany
05/2016 - 03/2021: Scientific Coordinator in the Research Unit FOR 2281 (www.so-long.org) and Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Freiburg, Department of Evolutionary Biology and Ecolgy (AG Korb), Freiburg (Brsg.), Germany
07/2013 – 04/2016: Postdoctoral Fellow (Schlinger) at the Australian National Insect Collection, CSIRO, National Research Collections Australia, Canberra, ACT, Australia
03/2012 – 06/2013: Postdoctoral Fellow (DFG) at the Centre for Molecular Biodiversity Research (zmb), Zoological Research Museum A. Koenig (ZFMK), Bonn, Germany
03/2012: Dr. rer. nat. (summa cum laude), Centre for Molecular Biodiversity Research (zmb), Zoological Research Museum A. Koenig (ZFMK), University of Bonn, Germany
since 2012: Active (founding) Member of 1KITE (www.1kite.org): coordination, organization, data analysis, lead of the sub-project "Basal Hexapods"
2006 – 2012: PhD student at the the Centre for Molecular Biodiversity Research (zmb), Zoological Research Museum A. Koenig (ZFMK), Bonn, Germany. Ph.D. thesis: Molecular phylogeny and evolution of ’basal hexapods’: The “Atelocerata” - A vanishing hypothesis? (DFG priority program SPP1174 “Deep Metazoan Phylogeny”). Supervisor: Prof. Dr. B. Misof. Published online: https://bonndoc.ulb.uni-bonn.de/xmlui/handle/20.500.11811/5363

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