Dr. Ulrich Ernst

Dr. Ulrich Rainer Ernst

Hüfferstr. 1
48149 Münster

T: +49 0711 459 23002

Consultation Hours

Since March 2021, I am working at the Apicultural State Institute (Landesanstalt für Bienenkunde) at the University of Hohenheim.

Academic Profiles

External Profile

  • Research Foci

    Animal Behaviour; Behavioural Ecology; Social Evolution; Sociobiology; Epigenetics; Physiology; Social Insects

    Animal Behaviour; Behavioural Ecology; Social Evolution; Sociobiology; Epigenetics; Physiology; Peptidomics; Proteomics; Social Insects; Ants; Bumblebees; Honeybees; Blochmannia

    Chemical Ecology; Proteomics; Peptidomics; Population Genomics

    Ants; Bumblebees; Honeybees

  • CV

    Academic Education

    Postdoc (University of Münster): Proximate and ultimate mechanisms of social niche choice and construction during colony founding in the ant Pogonomyrmex californicus
    Postdoc (IOCB Prague, CZ): The role of exocrine peptides in insect societies
    PhD student (KU Leuven, BE): The Honeybee as a model to study Worker policing, Epigenetics, and Ageing
    studies: Biology, Chemistry, German Literature and Linguistics, Pedagogics (University Konstanz, University Tübingen, Queen's University Belfast)

    Honors

    Postdoctoral scholarship – IOCB, Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Czech Academy of Science (CAS)
    PhD scholarship – IWT (Flemish agency for Innovation by Science and Technology)

    External Functions

    Equal Opportunities Commission, Department Biology (deputy)
    Rectorate’s commission for evaluation (deputy)
    Senate’s commission for equal opportunities

  • Projects

    In Process
    • Queen pheromones in bumblebees and honeybees (since )
      Own Resources Project
    • Worker policing in Camponotus maculatus (since )
      Own Resources Project
    Finished
    • CRC TRR 212 C04 - Proximate and ultimate mechanisms of social niche choice and construction during colony founding in the ant Pogonomyrmex californicus ( – )
      Subproject in DFG-Joint Project Hosted outside the University of Münster: DFG - Collaborative Research Centre | Project Number: TRR 212/1

  • Articles in Scientific Journals, Newspapers or Magazines

    • Errbii M, Ernst U, Lajmi A, Gadau J, Schrader L. . ‘Evolutionary genomics of socially polymorphic populations of Pogonomyrmex californicus.’ BMC Biology 22. doi: 10.1186/s12915-024-01907-z.

    • Büllesbach, Jan; Rinke, Janina; Reuter, Leonie; Thomas, Jurian M. M.; Hartmann, Vivien; Pohl, Marius; Gadau, Jürgen; Ernst, Ulrich R. R. . ‘Conserved worker policing in African carpenter ants with drastically different egg chemotypes.’ Evolutionary Ecology 37, № 5. doi: 10.1007/s10682-023-10245-5.
    • Preuss, A.; Czuppon, P.; Ernst, U.R.; Gadau, J. . ‘Harbouring Blochmannia incurs costs: a trade-off between the necessity of the obligate primary endosymbiont for brood development and its costs for adult carpenter ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae).’ Myrmecological news 33. doi: 10.25849/myrmecol.news_033:211.

    • Trappes Rose; Nematipour Bezad; Kaiser Marie I.; Krohs Ulrich; van Benthem Koen J.; Ernst Ulrich R.; Gadau Jürgen; Korsten Peter; Kurtz Joachim; Schielzeth Holger; Schmoll Tim; Takola Elina. . ‘How Individualized Niches Arise: Defining Mechanisms of Niche Construction, Niche Choice and Niche Conformance.’ BioScience 72, № 6: 538–548. doi: 10.1093/biosci/biac023.

    • Bohn J, Halabian R, Schrader L, Shabardina V, Steffen R, Suzuki Y, Ernst U, Gadau J, Makałowski W. . ‘High-Quality Genome Assembly and Annotation of the California Harvester Ant Pogonomyrmex californicus (Buckley, 1867).’ G3: Genes, Genomes, Genetics 11, № 1: jkaa019. doi: 10.1093/g3journal/jkaa019.
    • Ernst U, Preuss A. . „Kostenlose Behandlung?“ Deutsches Bienenjournal 28, № 3: 54–55.
    • Ernst, UR. . ‘Digest: Evolution of eusociality favored by split sex ratios under worker-control.’ Evolution 74, № 1: 201–202. doi: 10.1111/evo.13890.
    • Ernst U. . „Siegeszug der Krabbeltiere.“ Biologie in unserer Zeit 50, № 5: 284–285.
    • Ernst U. . „Honigbienen – geheimnisvolle Waldbewohner.“ Deutsches Bienenjournal 28, № 8: 61.
    • Ernst, UR Detienne, G Cardoen, D. . ‘Beekeepers and Scientists, or Beekeepers vs. Scientists?’ Bee World 97, № 3: 75–77. doi: 10.1080/0005772X.2020.1775540.
    • Ernst U. . „Für den Nach(t)tisch.“ Laborjournal online .

    • Ernst, UR. . ‘Life, Universe, and All the Rest.’ Trends in Ecology and Evolution 34, № 12: 1065–1066. doi: 10.1016/j.tree.2019.10.002.
    • Ernst UR, Pohl M. . „Ameisen auf Kätzchen.“ Deutsches Bienen-Journal 27, № 6: 56.
    • Princen SA, Oliveira RC, Ernst UR, Millar JG, Zweden JSv, Wenseleers T. . ‘Honeybees possess a structurally diverse and functionally redundant set of queen pheromones.’ Proceedings of the Royal Society B 286, № 1905: 20190517. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2019.0517.

    • Ernst U. . ‘Digest: Ant workers might use ancient regulatory pathways to divide labor*.’ Evolution 71, № 1: 193–194. doi: 10.1111/evo.13124.
    • Ernst U, Cardoen D, Cornette V, Ratnieks F, Graaf D, Schoofs L, Verleyen P, Wenseleers T. . ‘Individual and genetic task specialization in policing behaviour in the European honeybee.’ Animal Behaviour 128: 95–102. doi: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2017.04.005.
    • Kasper C, Vierbuchen M, Ernst U, Fischer S, Radersma R, Raulo A, Cunha-Saraiva F, Wu M, Mobley K, Taborsky B. . ‘Genetics and developmental biology of cooperation.’ Molecular Ecology 26, № 17: 4364–4377. doi: 10.1111/mec.14208.

    • Jedlicka P, Ernst U, Votavová, A, Hanus R, Valterová I. . ‘Gene expression dynamics in major endocrine regulatory pathways along the transition from solitary to social life in a bumblebee, Bombus terrestris.’ Frontiers in Physiology 7. doi: 10.3389/fphys.2016.00574.

    • Ernst U, Van Hiel M, Depuydt G, Boerjan B, De Loof A, Schoofs L. . ‘Epigenetics and locust life phase transitions.’ Journal of Experimental Biology 218, № 1: 88–99. doi: 10.1242/jeb.107078.

    • Ernst U, De Haes W, Cardoen D, Schoofs L. . ‘Life-prolonging measures for a dead theory?’ Age 36, № 2: 533–534. doi: 10.1007/s11357-013-9581-4.
    • Formesyn E, Cardoen D, Ernst U, Danneels E, Van Vaerenbergh M, De Koker D, Verleyen P, Wenseleers T, Schoofs L, Graaf D. . ‘Reproduction of honeybee workers is regulated by epidermal growth factor receptor signaling.’ General and Comparative Endocrinology 197: 1–4. doi: 10.1016/j.ygcen.2013.12.001.
    • Detienne G, De Haes W, Ernst U, Schoofs L, Temmerman L. . ‘Royalactin extends lifespan of Caenorhabditis elegans through epidermal growth factor signaling.’ Experimental Gerontology 60: 129–135. doi: 10.1016/j.exger.2014.09.021.

    • Cardoen D, Ernst U, Boerjan B, Bogaerts A, Formesyn E, De Graaf D, Wenseleers T, Schoofs L, Verleyen P. . ‘Worker honeybee sterility: A proteomic analysis of suppressed ovary activation.’ Journal of Proteome Research 11, № 5: 2838–2850. doi: 10.1021/pr201222s.
    • De Loof A, Boerjan B, Ernst U, Schoofs L. . ‘The mode of action of juvenile hormone and ecdysone: Towards an epi-endocrinological paradigm?’ General and Comparative Endocrinology 188, № 1: 35–45. doi: 10.1016/j.ygcen.2013.02.004.

    • Boerjan B, Sas F, Ernst U, Tobback J, Lemière F, Vandegehuchte M, Janssen C, Badisco L, Marchal E, Verlinden H, Schoofs L, De Loof A. . ‘Locust phase polyphenism: Does epigenetic precede endocrine regulation?’ General and Comparative Endocrinology 173, № 1: 120–128. doi: 10.1016/j.ygcen.2011.05.003.
    • Cardoen D, Ernst U, Vaerenbergh M, Boerjan B, Graaf D, Wenseleers T, Schoofs L, Verleyen P. . ‘Differential proteomics in dequeened honeybee colonies reveals lower viral load in hemolymph of fertile worker bees.’ PloS one 6, № 6. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0020043.
    • Cardoen D, Wenseleers T, Ernst U, Danneels E, Laget D, De Graaf D, Schoofs L, Verleyen P. . ‘Genome-wide analysis of alternative reproductive phenotypes in honeybee workers.’ Molecular Ecology 20, № 19: 4070–4084. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-294X.2011.05254.x.

  • Join the group

    Interested in what we are doing? Keen to learn? Having an idea for a research project?


    I welcome inquiries for internships, research modules ('Forschungsmodule'), student jobs, Bachelor's thesis, Master's thesis, PhD thesis, Postdoctoral research, Sabbaticals, cooperation, ... Please get in touch (e.g. drop by, call me, send a letter or an email, ...)!
    I will be very happy to explore opportunities with you and discuss several options for working together. We also work closely together within the Gadau lab (e.g. chemical ecology, bioinformatics), within the IEB (Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity), the University of Münster, and with many more international colleagues.
    Your topic was not mentioned in my research interests? No worries, I am broadly interested, chances are we will find a topic that is of interest to both of us. I am doing more stuff than is mentioned on the website...

    (While we are an international group and our working language is (broken) English, I am happy to communicate in German.)