Alexander Keller
Alexander Keller
Group Leader
Tel: 0931 - 31 84427
eMail: a.keller@biozentrum.uni-wuerzburg.de
Research
We recently moved to the LMU in München!
Until we have a new homepage there, please check the lab website here: https://www.molecular.eco
My projects focus on a combination of microbiome ecology with bioinformatics and new sequencing technologies. I am very interested in investigation of patterns and structuring forces of microbial communities inhabitating various habitats. This interest applies to various levels, starting with abundance and diversity pattern of species/groups, over phylogenetics, towards environmental and spatial influences and lastly regarding organisms’ molecular interactions with each other on a metagenomic level. From a methodological perspective, my workgroup is currently developing and establishing novel molecular techniques to prepare ecological samples for NGS. This goes hand in hand with the corresponding analytical in silico workflows.
Curriculum Vitae
| 2021 | - | now | Professor | Cellular and Organismic Networks, Ludwig Maximilians Universität (LMU), München, Germany |
| 2017 | - | 2021 | Privatdozent & Akad. Oberrat | Bioinformatics Dept. & CCTB, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany |
| 2013 | - | 2021 | Principal Investigator | Graduate School of Life Sciences, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany |
| 2011 | - | 2017 | Young Investigator Group Leader | Molecular Biodiversity Group, Department of Animal Ecology and Tropical Biology, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany |
| 2014 | - | 2017 | Habilitation Candidate | Faculty of Biology, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany |
| 2010 | Visiting Scientist | Faculty of Biology and Health Services, Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, Edinboro, PA, USA | ||
| 2008 | - | 2010 | Graduate School Member | Elite Network Bavaria, Bavaria, Germany |
| 2007 | - | 2010 | PhD Candidate | Department of Bioinformatics, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany |
| 2007 | Research Assistant | Department of Animal Ecology and Tropical Biology, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany | ||
| 2006 | Visiting Scientist | Faculty of Science, University of Brunei Darussalam, Gadong, Brunei Darussalam | ||
| 2005 | Visiting Scientist | Hitoy Cerere National Park, Talamanca, Costa Rica | ||
| 2004 | - | 2007 | Diplom Candidate | Department of Animal Ecology and Tropical Biology |
| 2001 | - | 2004 | Vordiplom Candidate | Faculty of Biology, University of Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe, Germany |
Publications
- [ 2023 ]
- [ 2022 ]
- [ 2021 ]
- [ 2020 ]
- [ 2019 ]
- [ 2018 ]
- [ 2017 ]
- [ 2016 ]
- [ 2015 ]
- [ 2014 ]
- [ 2013 ]
- [ 2012 ]
- [ 2011 ]
- [ 2010 ]
- [ 2009 ]
- [ 2008 ]
2023[ to top ]
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Ten (mostly) simple rules to future-proof trait data in ecological and evolutionary sciences in Methods in Ecology and Evolution, (K. Bacon, red.) (2023). 14(2) 444–458.
2022[ to top ]
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Wild bee larval food composition in five European cities in Ecology (2022). in press.
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Pollinator-flower interactions in gardens during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown of 2020 in Journal of Pollination Ecology (2022). in press.
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Plants, pollinators and their interactions under global ecological change: The role of pollen DNA metabarcoding in Molecular Ecology (2022). n/a(n/a)
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Phylogenetic relatedness of food plants reveals highest insect herbivore specialisation at intermediate temperatures along a broad climatic gradient in Global Change Biology (2022). in press.
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Forest landscapes increase diversity of honeybee diets in the tropics in Forest Ecology and Management (2022). in press.
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Do amino and fatty acid profiles of pollen provisions correlate with bacterial microbiomes in the mason bee Osmia bicornis? in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B (2022). in press.
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Diets maintained in a changing world: Does land-use intensification alter wild bee communities by selecting for flexible generalists? in Ecology and Evolution (2022). in press.
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Decreased efficiency of pollen collection due to Sulfoxaflor exposure leads to a reduction in the size of bumble bee workers in late European summer in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution (2022). 10
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Critical links between biodiversity, nutrition and health in wild bee conservation in Trends in Ecology and Evolution (2022). in press.
2021[ to top ]
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Standard methods for pollen research in Journal of Apicultural Research (2021). 60(4) 1–109.
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Species richness is more important for ecosystem functioning than species turnover along an elevational gradient in Nature Ecology and Evolution (2021). in press.
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Putative roles of bacteria in the carbon and nitrogen cycles in a tropical peat swamp forest in Basic and Applied Ecology (2021). Special issue: Predictors of microbiomes
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Preservation methods of honey-bee collected pollen are not a source of bias in ITS2 metabarcoding in Environmental Monitoring and Assessment (2021). in press.
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Pollen diets and niche overlap of honey bees and native bees in protected areas in Basic and Applied Ecology (2021). Special issue: Sequence based molecular ecology
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Osmotic adaptation and compatible solute biosynthesis of phototrophic bacteria as revealed from genome analyses in Microorganisms (2021). 9(1) 46.
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Open Science principles for accelerating trait-based science across the Tree of Life in Nature Ecology & Evolution (2021). 294–303.
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Many small rather than few large sources identified in long-term bee pollen diets in agroecosystems in Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment (2021).
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Inferring core genome phylogenies for bacteria in Bacterial Pangenomics (in press), A. Mengoni, M. Fondi, G. Bacci (reds.) (2021).
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How bees find a way in European cities: pollen metabarcoding unravels multiple feeding strategies and their effects on distribution patterns in four wild bee species in Journal of Applied Ecology (2021). in press.
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Functional resin use in solitary bees in Ecological Entomology (2021). in press.
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Effects of three flower field types on bumblebees and their pollen diets in Basic and Applied Ecology (2021). 52 95–108.
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DNA sequence-based biodiversity and interaction ecology in Basic and Applied Ecology (2021).
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Cryptic species and hidden ecological interactions of halictine bees along an elevational gradient in Ecology and Evolution (2021).
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An integrative environmental pollen diversity assessment and its importance for the Sustainable Development Goals in Plants, People, Planet (2021). in press.
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(More than) Hitchhikers through the network: The shared microbiome of bees and flowers in Current Opinion in Insect Science (2021).
2020[ to top ]
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Tracking beekeepers in floristic regions of Iran: employing DNA metabarcoding to determine the geographical origin of honey in Heliyon (2020).
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The genus Micromonospora as a model microorganism for bioactive natural product discovery in Royal Society of Chemistry Advances (2020). 10(35) 20939–20959.
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Susceptibility of red mason bee larvae to bacterial threats due to microbiome exchange with imported pollen provisions in Insects (2020). 11(6)
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Strong phylogenetic constraint on transition metal incorporation in the mandibles of the hyper-diverse Hymenoptera (Insecta) in Organisms, Diversity and Evolution (2020). in press.
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Introduced bees (Osmia cornifrons) collect pollen from both coevolved and novel host-plant species within their family-level phylogenetic preferences in Royal Society Open Science (2020). in press.
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Floral Species Richness Correlates with Changes in the Nutritional Quality of Larval Diets in a Stingless Bee in Insects (2020). 11(2)
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CRISPR/Cas 9 mediated mutations as a new tool for studying taste in honeybees in Chemical Senses (2020). bjaa063.
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BCdatabaser: on-the-fly reference database creation for DNA (meta-)barcoding in Bioinformatics (2020). in press.
2019[ to top ]
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Venus flytrap microbiota withstand harsh conditions during prey digestion in FEMS Microbiology Ecology (2019). fiz010.
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Linking the foraging patterns of megachilid bee species to nest bacteria in Ecology and Evolution (2019). in press.
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Honey bee waggle dance communication increases diversity of pollen diets in intensively managed agricultural landscapes in Molecular Ecology (2019). in press.
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Drivers, diversity and functions of solitary bee microbiota in Trends in Microbiology (2019). in press.
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Cold-adaptation of Subtercola vilae DB165T, an isolate from a high-altitude cold volcano lake, as revealed by its genome analysis (2019).
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Climate–land-use interactions shape tropical mountain biodiversity and ecosystem functions in Nature (2019).
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Bacterial community structure and succession in nests of two megachilid bee genera in FEMS Microbiology Ecology (2019). 95(1) fiy218.
2018[ to top ]
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Wild bees and their nests host Paenibacillus bacteria with functional potential of avail in Microbiome (2018). (6) 229.
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The characterization of the circadian clock in the olive fly Bactrocera oleae (Diptera: Tephritidae) reveals a Drosophila-like organization in Scientific Reports (2018). 8(1) 816.
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Physical contact between mesenchymal stem cells and endothelial precursors induces distinct signatures with relevance to the very early phase of regeneration in Journal of Cellular Biochemistry (2018).
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Microbial community structure in a Malaysian tropical peat swamp forest: the influence of tree species and depth in Frontiers in Microbiology (2018). 9 2859.
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FENNEC - Functional Exploration of Natural Networks and Ecological Communities in Methods in Ecology and Evolution (2018). 2028–2033.
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Draft Genome Sequence of Paraburkholderia sp. Strain C35, Isolated from a Malaysian Tropical Peat Swamp Forest in Genome Announcements (2018). 6(25)
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Draft Genome Sequence of Klebsiella sp. Strain C31 Isolated from a Malaysian Tropical Peat Swamp Forest in Genome announcements (2018). 6(25) e00560–18.
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Draft Genome Sequence of Dyella sp. Strain C9, Isolated from a Malaysian Tropical Peat Swamp Forest in Microbiol Res Announc (2018). 7(12) e01083–18.
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Draft Genome Sequence of Dyella sp. Strain C11, Isolated from a Malaysian Tropical Peat Swamp Forest in Genome announcements (2018). 6(25) e00459–18.
2017[ to top ]
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Release from prey preservation behavior via prey switch allowed diversification of cuticular hydrocarbon profiles in digger wasps in Evolution (2017). in press
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Honey bee foraging ecology: Season but not landscape diversity shapes the amount and diversity of collected pollen in PloS one (2017). 12(8) e0183716.
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Generalist social bees maximize diversity intake in plant species-rich and resource-abundant environments in Ecosphere (2017). 8(3) e01758-n/a.
2016[ to top ]
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Silent listeners: Can preferences of eavesdropping midges predict the parasitism risk of their host? in Behavioral Ecology (2016). 27 995–1003.
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Pollen DNA barcoding: current applications and future prospects in Genome (2016). 59 629–640.
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Laboratory rearing of solitary bees and wasps in Insect Science (2016). 23 918.
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Draft genome of the Arabidopsis thaliana phyllosphere bacterium, Williamsia sp. ARP1 in Standards in Genomic Sciences (2016).
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DNA-Metabarcoding – ein neuer Blick auf organismische Diversität in BioSpektrum (2016). 22 147–150.
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Crown galls of grapevine (Vitis vinifera) host distinct microbiota in Applied and Environmental Microbiology (2016). 82 5542–5552.
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Contact of myeloma cells induces a characteristic transcriptome signature in skeletal precursor cells--Implications for myeloma bone disease in Bone (2016). 93 155–166.
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biojs-io-biom, a {BioJS} component for handling data in Biological Observation Matrix ({BIOM}) format in F1000Research (2016). 5 2348.
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bcgTree: automatized phylogenetic tree building from bacterial core genomes in Genome (2016). 59 783–791.
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Bacterial Diversity and Community Structure in Two Bornean Nepenthes Species with Differences in Nitrogen Acquisition Strategies in Microbial Ecology (2016). 71 938–953.
2015[ to top ]
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{{I}{T}{S}2 {D}atabase {V}: {T}wice as {M}uch} in Mol. Biol. Evol. (2015). 32(11) 3030–3032.
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Reptiles as reservoirs of bacterial infections: real threat or methodological bias? in Microbial Ecology (2015). 70(3) 579–84.
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Monophyletic clades of Macaranga pollinating thrips with high specificity to host plant taxonomic sections in Biological Journal of the Linnean Society (2015). 116(3) 558–570.
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Microhabitat heterogeneity across leaves and flower organs promotes bacterial diversity in FEMS Microbiology Ecology (2015). 91(1) fiv09.
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ITS2 Database V: Twice as Much in Molecular Biology and Evolution (2015). 32(11) 3030–3032.
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Increased efficiency in identifying mixed pollen samples by meta-barcoding with a dual-indexing approach in BMC Ecology (2015). 15 20.
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Functional and phylogenetic diversities of plant communities differently affect the structure of flower-visitor interactions and reveal convergences in floral traits in Evolutionary Ecology (2015). 29 437–450.
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Evaluating multiplexed next-generation sequencing as a method in palynology for mixed pollen samples in Plant Biology (2015). 17 558–566.
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DNA-analyses of Venerupis philippinarum (Adams and Reeve, 1850) with a new and constant shell-pattern from Italy, Emilia Romagna in Malacologia (2015). 86(1) 30–32.
2014[ to top ]
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Pollen DNA barcoding using next-generation sequencing in Barcode Bulletin (2014). 5(3) 8.
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Novel form of X-linked nonsyndromic hearing loss with cochlear malformation caused by a mutation in the type IV collagen gene COL4A6 in European Journal of Human Genetics (2014). (22) 208–215.
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Identification of WISP1 as an important survival factor in human mesenchymal stem cells in Gene (2014). 551(2) 243–54.
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Density-dependent responses by bumblebees to flower dwelling bacteria in Apidologie (2014). 45 467–477.
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Confirmation of warfarin resistance of naturally occurring VKORC1 variants by coexpression with coagulation factor IX and in silico protein modelling in BMC Genetics (2014). 15 17.
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Computational integration of genomic traits into 16S rDNA microbiota sequencing studies in Gene (2014). 549(1) 186–191.
2013[ to top ]
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Only distance matters--non-choosy females in a poison frog population in Frontiers in Zoology (2013). 10(1) 29.
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Diverse microbiota identified in whole intact nest chambers of the red mason bee Osmia bicornis (Linnaeus 1758) in PloS one (2013). 8(10) e78296.
2012[ to top ]
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Common ancestry or environmental trait filters: cross-continental comparisons of trait--habitat relationships in tropical anuran amphibian assemblages in Global Ecology and Biogeography (2012). 21(7) 704–715.
2011[ to top ]
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Internal transcribed spacer 2 (nu ITS2 rRNA) sequence-structure phylogenetics: towards an automated reconstruction of the green algal tree of life in PLoS One (2011). 6(2) e16931.
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Hawaiian ant-flower networks: nectar-thieving ants prefer undefended native over introduced plants with floral defenses in Ecological Monographs (2011). 81(2) 295–311.
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Composition of epiphytic bacterial communities differs on petals and leaves in Plant Biology (2011). 13(6) 918–924.
2010[ to top ]
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{{I}ncluding {R}{N}{A} secondary structures improves accuracy and robustness in reconstruction of phylogenetic trees} in Biol. Direct (2010). 5 4.
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The ITS2 Database III—sequences and structures for phylogeny in Nucleic Acids Research (2010). 38(Suppl 1) D275-D279.
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Ribosomal RNA phylogenetics: the third dimension in Biologia (2010). 65(3) 388–391.
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ITS2 sequence-structure phylogeny in the Scenedesmaceae with special reference to em Coelastrum em (Chlorophyta, Chlorophyceae), including the new genera em Comasiella em and em Pectinodesmusem in Phycologia (2010). 49(4) 325–335.
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Including RNA secondary structures improves accuracy and robustness in reconstruction of phylogenetic trees in Biology Direct (2010). 5 4.
2009[ to top ]
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The importance of environmental heterogeneity for species diversity and assemblage structure in Bornean stream frogs in Journal of Animal Ecology (2009). 78(2) 305–314.
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ITS2 secondary structure improves phylogeny estimation in a radiation of blue butterflies of the subgenus em Agrodiaetus em (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae: \em Polyommatus\em ) in BMC Evolutionary Biology (2009). 9(1) 300.
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Die Artenvielfalt der Amphibien in einem Tieflandregenwald auf Borneo (2009). 80–83.
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A Bornean amphibian hotspot: the lowland mixed dipterocarp rainforest at Ulu Temburong National Park, Brunei Darussalam in Salamandra (2009). 45 16–25.
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5.8S-28S rRNA interaction and HMM-based ITS2 annotation in Gene (2009). 430(1) 50–57.
2008[ to top ]
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ITS2 data corroborate a monophyletic chlorophycean DO-group (Sphaeropleales) in BMC Evolutionary Biology (2008). 8(1) 218.
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Geographic distribution: Xenodermus javanicus (Short Note) in Herpetological Review (2008). 39 373.
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Geographic distribution: Parias sumatranus (Short Note) in Herpetological Review (2008). 39 373.
