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Welcome to the Animal Evolutionary Ecology Group
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We seek to understand the ecological and evolutionary consequences of host-parasite interactions from the individual to the ecosystem level. Host-parasite systems are ideal models for studying evolution in action, because hosts and parasites evolve very fast. So, host-parasite interactions provide us with great opportunities to study coevolution and eco-evolutionary feedbacks.
In our group, we use natural and experimental populations of the red flour beetle (Tribolium castaneum), three-spined stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus), and Mexican cavefish (Astyanax mexicanus) to address three general questions relevant to ecological immunology, parasitology and even evolutionary medicine:
- How does the immune system evolve?
- How does the evolution of immunological and physiological traits shape co-evolution?
- What are the eco-evolutionary consequences of host-parasite interactions?
We combine theoretical models, natural history, field, and laboratory experiments. The evolution of immunity to parasites has been a major but not exclusive focus of our group. Currently, we are investigating:
- The evolutionary ecology consequences of immune specificity and immune memory in the red flour beetle.
- The role of niche construction and evolutionary capacitance for evolvability in the red flour beetle.
- Genetic and phenotypic characterization of immunological niche conformance in cavefish
- Niche construction consequences of parasite virulence in evo-evolutionary dynamics.
Our model systems
![](/imperia/md/images/evolution/fittosize_761_381_20c1eebb8f0afe5c3b82f253a7db8f59_lk_stick.jpg)
![](/imperia/md/images/evolution/fittosize_761_386_8039318c29736601ac27612b4a82515a_cavefish.jpg)
![](/imperia/md/images/evolution/fittosize_761_381_09f54c61d0d1f9b89ec8fc16f2df89f5_surface.jpg)
![](/imperia/md/images/evolution/fittosize_761_380_f37881c340753b996d0c80e0a9445430_schistocephalus.jpg)
![](/imperia/md/images/evolution/fittosize_761_381_a44348f04094bbd9091eb9d802df0a01_female_with_eggs.jpg)
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Research: We study the ecology and evolution consequences of host-parasite interactions using red flour beetles, three-spined sticklebacks, Mexican cavefish, and their parasites.
Teaching activities: Our teaching activities encompass courses for the Bachelor (e.g. Evolution & Biodiversity of Animals, Animal Evolutionary Ecology) and the Master curriculum (e.g. Host-Parasite-Coevolution, Evolutionary Medicine).
Prof. Dr. Joachim Kurtz is our group leader, also serving as spokesman of both the:
DFG Research Training Group EvoPAD
Münster Graduate School of Evolution (MGSE)