Prof. Dr. Monika Hassel Group

Molecular Zoology - Morphology and Evolution of Invertebrates
Prof. Dr. Monika Hassel has retired but can be contacted via hassel@biologie.uni-marburg.de.

Molecular data provide increasing evidence that the highly divergent animal body plans evolved under the control of relatively few, interconnected signaling cascades. Modifications of an ancestral set of proteins and its gene regulation appear to have formed the basis for the diversification of animal body plans. Therefore, the evolutionary analysis of signaling molecules and their receptors as well as the taxon-specific modulation of downstream signaling systems is an interesting task. Our goal is to participate in the elucidation of the evolution of signaling cascades relevant for morphogenesis.