Diethard Tautz Do New Genes Stem From the Non-Coding Part of the Genome During Fast Adaptation Processes?
Diethard Tautz is Director of the Department of Evolutionary Genetics at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology. He is an elected member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO), the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences, Humanities and the Arts, and of the National Academy of Sciences, Leopoldina. Furthermore, he is co-founder and co-editor in chief of Frontiers in Zoology as well as member of several editorial boards, including that of Developmental Biology and Evolution and Development. He is particularly interested in understanding the molecular mechanism of evolutionary adaptations as well as population genetics, speciation and comparative genomics.
Area of Research
Molecular Evolution
since 2007
1998-2007
Professor of Molecular Evolution
University of Cologne (Universität zu Köln)
Institute of Genetics
1991-1998
Professor of Molecular Evolution
Ludwig Maximilian University Munich (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München)
Department of Zoology
1988-1990
Group Leader
Ludwig Maximilian University Munich (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München)
Department of Genetics
1988
Habilitation in Molecular Biology
University of Tübingen (Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen)
1983-1985
Post-Doc
University of Cambridge
Department of Genetics
1983
1976-1981
Study of Biology
Goethe University of Frankfurt (Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main)
- German Association of Bioscientists
- Scientific Council Zoology of the DFG
Prizes
- Elected Member of the National Academy Leopoldina (since 2008)
- Elected Member of the European Molecular Biology Organization, EMBO (since 2001)
- Philip Morris Prize (1995)
- Gerhard Hess Prize of the DFG (1990)
- ERC Advanced Grant (2013-2018)
© Maximilian Dörrbecker
Max Planck Society
"The Max Planck Society is Germany's most successful research organization. Since its establishment in 1948, no fewer than 18 Nobel laureates have emerged from the ranks of its scientists, putting it on a par with the best and most prestigious research institutions worldwide. The more than 15,000 publications each year in internationally renowned scientific journals are proof of the outstanding research work conducted at Max Planck Institutes – and many of those articles are among the most-cited publications in the relevant field." (Source)
Institute
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology
The Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology consists of the three departments Evolutionary Ecology, Evolutionary Genetics and Evolutionary Theory, the fourth department Microbial Population Biology is currently building up. The institute is focused on basic research to unravel general evolutionary processes, such as ecological adaptations, benefits of sexual reproduction or evolution of cooperation. The scope of the work includes ecological, organismic, molecular and theoretical approaches. (Source)
Map
It is often thought that evolution is a slow process. During ecological changes in the environment, however, evolution can happen very fast. One of the reasons for this could be the role of new genes that are recruited during that adaptation. DIETHARD TAUTZ pursues the theory that these new genes come out of the so-called non-coding part of the genome. He is interested in studying the fraction of bioactive molecules that come out of random sequences. So far, this explanation has been thought unlikely but, as he explains in this video, synthesizing random sequences and using bacteria as a test system his research group found bioactive molecules in them. This suggests that during fast adaptation processes new genes are recruited from this background of genes in the non-coding part of the genome. This has important implications for our understanding of how adaptation works and offers great potential for the use of these bioactive molecules for medical and pharmaceutical purposes.
LT Video Publication DOI: https://doi.org/10.21036/LTPUB10468
Random Sequences Are an Abundant Source of Bioactive RNAs or Peptides
- Rafik Neme, Cristina Amador, Burcin Yildirim, Ellen McConnell and Diethard Tautz
- Nature Ecology & Evolution
- Published in 2017
