Oliver Niehuis

vCard Oliver Niehuis
o.niehuis.zfmk@uni-bonn.de
Affiliation:	Zoologisches Forschungsmuseum Alexander Koenig
Homepage:	www.zfmk.de/web/ZFMK_Mitarbeiter/NiehuisOliver/index.en.html
Phone:	+49 228 9122 356
WorkingGroup:	Evo-Devo
i5K_WorkingGroup:	Phylogenomics
Species:	Xyela alpigena, Orussus abietinus, Stephanus serrator, Gasteruption tournieri, Hedychrum rutilans, Philanthus triangulum, Scolia hirta, Mengenilla sp., Nasonia vitripennis, Nasonia giraulti, Nasonia longicornis, Pogonomyrmex barbatus

I am interested in the evolutionary history of insects in general and of Hymenoptera in particular. My research is currently focused on the analysis of insect genomes. We study the gene content of whole genomes to infers reliable sets of orthologous genes; the latter typically accompany our phylogenetic studies, in which we analyze EST data. We also analyze genomic meta-characters, such as protein domain and gene content, gene order, presence/absence of specific miRNAs and snoRNAs, and the position of introns within genes, for phylogenetic inference. We sequenced the first genome of a twisted-wing parasite (Insecta: Strepsiptera), and we are currently preparing the sequencing of several species of Hymenoptera. For this purpose, we started screening the genome size of numerous phylogenetically important taxa using flow cytometry.