The Zhou lab

Contrary to a recent molecular phylogeny study, our new study suggested that Annulipalpia (retreat makers) formed the basal lineage of the caddisflies, implying that these aquatic insects were equipped with case-building capability when they split from their terrestrial sibling - Lepidoptera. The placement of "Spicipalpia" to the base of Integripalpia wou...

Wipfler, B., W. Koehler, P. B. Frandsen, A. Donath, S. Liu, R. Machida, B. Misof, R. S. Peters, S. Shimizu, X. Zhou, and S. Simon. 2020. Phylogenomics changes our understanding about earwig evolution. Systematic Entomology. PDF

https://doi.org/10.1111/syen.12420

Abstract. Earwigs are one of the comparatively species-poor insect orders. Although various aspe...

1KITE-Virus

Käfer, S.#, S. Paraskevopoulou#, F. Zirkel, N. Wieseke, A. Donath, M. Petersen, T. C. Jones, S. Liu, X. Zhou, M. Middendorf, S. Junglen*, B. Misof*, C. Drosten*. 2019. Re-assessing the diversity of negative strand RNA viruses in insects. PLOS Pathogens. PDF

Abstract: The spectrum of viruses in insects is important for subjects as diverse as publ...

1KITE-Coleoptera：multiple horizontal gene transfer events may have enabled the diversification of phytophagous beetles. 

McKenna*#, D. D., S. Shin#, D. Ahrens, M. Balke, C. Beza-Beza, D. J. Clarke, A. Donath, H. E. Escalona, F. Friedrich, H. Letsch, S. Liu, D. Maddison, C. Mayer, B. Misof, P. J. Murin, O. Niehuis, R. S. Peters, L. Podsiadlowski, H. Pohl, E...

1KITE-Lepidoptera

Kawahara, A. Y.*, D. Plotkin, M. Espeland, K. Meusemann, E. F.A. Toussaint, A. Donath, F. Gimnich, P. B. Frandsen, A. Zwick, M. dos Reis, J. R. Barber, R. S. Peters, S. Liu, X. Zhou, C. Mayer, L. Podsiadlowski, C. Storer, B. Misof, J. W. Breinholt. 2019. Phylogenomics reveals the evolutionary timing and pattern of butterflies and moths....

1KITE: Phasmatodea

Simon, S., H. Letsch, S. Bank, T. R. Buckley, A. Donath, S. Liu, R. Machida, K. Meusemann, B. Misof, L. Podsiadlowski, X. Zhou, B. Wipfler, and S. Bradler. 2019. Old World and New World Phasmatodea: phylogenomics resolve the evolutionary history of stick and leaf insects. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution 7:345. doi: 10.3389/fevo.2019.0...

In our recent paper, a direct shotgun sequencing based approach (genome skimming) enabled quantitative measurement of pollen composition. In a series of mock samples, we demonstrated that the genome skimming method was both sensitive and accurate in revealing the diversity of pollen species, including species richness and relative abundance. The new metho...

Thanks to all contributing authors, we managed to organize 9 papers in this very first special issue on biodiversity genomics! The topics cover freshwater monitoring, detection of invasive species, diet analysis of carnivores, microbiota of model animals and bees, along with new informatics pipelines. These papers show diverse applications of metabarcodin...

It's the time of the year again. Hope for the best for all of you.