Group leader
E-mail: shuqing.xu@uni-mainz.de
Tel: +49 6131 39 26907
Shuqing Xu obtained his PhD from ETH Zürich under the supervision of Prof. Florian Schiestl and Prof. Alex Widmer in 2011. His PhD thesis focused on the evolution of floral signals in a specialized pollination system. Between 2012 and 2017, he moved to Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena as a project group leader in the Department of Molecular Ecology (led by Prof. Ian Baldwin), where he worked on the evolutionary genetics of plant defences. In 2018, he was appointed as an associate professor (W2) at the University of Münster. Since April 2022 he is the department chair of evolutionary plant sciences at the University of Mainz. He is a father of three children.
Administrative Management
Annette Bessell
E-mail: annette.bessell@uni-mainz.de
Tel: +49 6131 39 28938
© Andrea Schombara
Postdoc / junior group leader
E-mail: achakrab@uni-mainz.de
Tel: +49 6131 39 31266
Abhisek joined the group in April 2024. He received his PhD in computational genomics at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Bhopal, India in December, 2023. During his PhD, he used a multi-omics approach to understand the adaptive evolution of biological pathways in Eukaryotic organisms. His postdoctoral research at JGU Mainz focuses on revealing the role of autotoxicity protection for defense metabolism innovations in Solanaceae using a multi-omics approach.
E-mail: csiadjeu@uni-mainz.de
Tel: +49 6131 39 30643
Christian Siadjeu joined the group in July 2024. He completed his PhD at the Carl von Ossietzky-Universität Oldenburg, Germany in 2021. In April 2021, he relocated to Munich as a postdoctoral researcher at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU). His research interests focus on understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying complex traits and their evolution. He is currently focusing on comparative genomics of flower and organ development in Duckweed using single-cell genomics.
Dr. Christian Uhink
E-mail: uhink@uni-mainz.de
Tel: +49 6131 39 22629
Christian Uhink is responsible for teaching the Botanical Identification Exercises and the Basic Botanical Exercises in the undergraduate programs. He received his PhD working at the Institute of Special Botany at JGU Mainz on the systematics and biogeography of alpine plant groups. He also works as a study manager for the faculty of biology.
E-mail: mschaefer@uni-mainz.de
Tel: +49 6131 39 29159
Martin joined the group in May 2018. He received his PhD from the University of Jena for his work at the Max-Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology (Prof. Ian Baldwin) in 2015. He has extensive experience with analytic chemistry and is interested in studying the mechanisms and functions of plant chemical defences. He is currently in charge of the molecular and analytic platforms in the group. He is also working on an ongoing project that investigates whether and how aphids herbivory on duckweed affects the evolution of aquatic communities.
E-mail: nnariman@uni-mainz.de
Tel: +49 6131 39 29234
Nijat joined the group in June 2022. He received his PhD in community and behavioural ecology at the University of Koblenz-Landau, Germany in 2022. He is interested in understanding the mechanisms and consequences of animal behaviour. He is currently working on the role of niche choice on host plant adaptation in Colorado potato beetles. His project is part of the NC3 initiative.
Dr. Pablo Duchen
E-mail: pduchnbo@uni-mainz.de
Pablo joined the group in July 2021 as a junior group leader. He received his PhD in theoretical population genetics at the University of Munich (Prof. Wolfgang Stephan), Germany in 2014. His research concerns the evolution of adaptation at both the population genomic and phenotypic levels, as well as the link between these levels. His approach is computational and theoretical, with direct applications to real biological datasets. He is currently leading a sub research group in the department.
Patrycja j
oined the group in June 2024. She obtained her PhD at the John Innes Centre in Norwich, UK, focusing on plant metabolism and mineral nutrition. In 2019 she moved to the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena to research mate selection and reproduction mechanisms of wild tobacco. At JGU, she is developing a synthetic biology toolbox to study the evolution of specialised secondary metabolites.
Dr. Yangzi Wang
Yangzi started his postdoc position in February 2025, shortly after his PhD. He will continue to work on the evolution of plant defence and reproduction using different bioinformatic tools.
PhD student
Aleksandra Varenikova
E-mail: alvareni@uni-mainz.de
Aleksandra (Sasha) started her MSc in the group working and learned bioinformatics. In January 2025, she will start her PhD working on the molecular mechanisms and evolution of fecundity in Colorado potato beetles, a major agricultural pest. Her project is part of the GenEvo research training group.
Anna Sofia Kolehmainen
E-mail: akolehma@uni-mainz.de
Anna joined the group in January 2025 after earning her master’s degree from Ruprecht-Karls University Heidelberg, Germany. Her research focuses on molecular mechanisms underlying plant-microbe interactions, with a particular interest in developing a transformation method for Lemna aequinoctialis.
Himrekha Agarwal
E-mail: hagarwal@uni-mainz.de
Himrekha joined the group in May, 2023 after receiving her master's degree from the University of Mumbai, India. She is working on the mechanisms underlying neurotoxin self-tolerance and its evolution in Colorado Potato Beetles. She is co-supervised by Prof. Marion Silies.. Her project is a part of the GenEvo Research Training group.
Léonore Wilhelm
E-mail: lwilhe02@uni-mainz.de
Léonore joined the group in July 2022, after receiving her master's degree at Pierre and Marie Curie University in Paris. She is interested in using molecular tools to understand the evolution of important traits. She is currently working on the evolution of a neurotoxin in Colorado potato beetles. Her project is part of the GenEvo research training group. She is co-supervised by Prof. Marion Silies.
Philippa Musiolik
E-mail: phmusiol@uni-mainz.de
Philippa joined the group in June 2024 after receiving her master’s degree from the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany. She is interested in understanding animal behavior and currently working on investigating the evolution of niche choice behavior and its effects on the fitness of Colorado potato beetles.
Sara Nouere
E-mail: snouere@uni-mainz.de
Sara joined the group in September 2021. She received her master's degree from the International Center for Advanced Mediterranean Agronomic Studies in Bari, Italy. She is interested in understanding how microbes affect the function and evolution of plant defences. She is working on the EvolTroph project.
MSc student
Stella Charlotte Peters
E-mail: speter03@students.uni-mainz.de
BSc student
Pascal Blaschke
E-mail: pblaschk@students.uni-mainz.de
Technical assistant
Former members / Alumni
Prof. Antonino Malacrinò (postdoc in the group)
Prof. Wenwu Zhou (postdoc in the group)
Dr. Martin Höfer (PhD student)
Dr. Yangzi Wang (PhD student)
Víctor Cáceres Singh (MSc student)
Julia Michaela Held (BSc student)
Jonas Joachim Biroth (MSc student)
Kris Künemund (research assistant)
Dr. Alitha Edison (PhD student)
Laura Böttner (co-supervised PhD student)
Anna Viola Rauschkolb (BSc student)
Nesma Mohamed (guest scientist)
Dr. Ling Lin (guest scientist)
Lanlan Ke (guest scientist)
Uschi Martiné (Technical assistant)
Dr. Zhihao Lin (PhD student)
Dr. Thomas Brockmöller (PhD student)
Marina Hölter (MSc student)
Annika Pins (BSc student)
Hanna Kertzel (BSc student)
Maximilian Hackhausen (BSc student)
Jonas Nikolaus Bachofer (BSc student)
Luise Schmidt (BSc student)
Thomas Schacker (BSc student)
Pauline Prüsener (BSc student)
Samuel Wink (BSc student)
Fabio Dudenhausen (BSc student)
Milena Harnisch (BSc student)
Maximilian Schiefer (BSc student)
Joachim Rikus (BSc student)
Pia te Heesen (BSc student)