Joana Meier
- Branco Weiss Fellow (Department of Zoology)
- Group Leader and Royal Society URF, Tree of Life Programme, Wellcome Sanger Institute
- Research Associate, St John's College (former fellow)
About
since 2022 Group leader at the Tree of Life Programme, Wellcome Sanger Institute (https://www.sanger.ac.uk/group/meier-group/)
since 2022 Royal Society University Research Fellow at the Tree of Life Programme, Wellcome Sanger Institute
2020 - 2025: Branco Weiss Fellow at the Zoology Department, University of Cambridge
2018 - 2022: Bateson Research Fellow (JRF) at St John's College, Cambridge, associated with the group of Chris Jiggins at the Zoology Department, University of Cambridge
2016 - 2018: Postdoc in the group of Aquatic Ecology and Evolution with Ole Seehausen, University of Bern and EAWAG, Switzerland
2012 - 2016: PhD in Ecology and Evolution with Ole Seehausen and Laurent Excoffier, University of Bern and EAWAG, Switzerland
2010 - 2012: Master of Science in Ecology and Evolution in the population genetics group with Gerald Heckel, University of Bern, Switzerland
Research
Key publications
Van der Heijden, (…) Meier J. I. (2025): Genomics of Neotropical biodiversity indicators: two butterfly radiations with rampant chromosomal rearrangements and hybridisation. PNAS 122: e2410939122, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2410939122
Rueda N. (…) Meier J. I.*, Salazar C.* (*shared last authors) (2024) Genomic evidence reveals three sequential W-autosome fusions in Heliconius butterflies. PLoS Genetics. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1011318
Walker J. M., van der Heijden E. S. M., Maulana A, Rueda-Muñoz N., Näsvall K, Salazar P. A., Meyer M., Meier J. I. (2024) Common misconceptions of speciation. Evolutionary Journal of the Linnean Society. DOI: 10.1093/evolinnean/kzae029
Meier J. I. et al. (16 authors) (2023) Cycles of fusion and fission enabled rapid parallel adaptive radiations in African cichlids. Science. 381, DOI: 10.1126/science.ade2833
Meier J. I., Salazar P. A., Kučka M., Davies R. W., Dréau A., Aldás I., Box Power O., Nadeau N. J., Bridle J. R., Rolian C., Barton N. H., McMillan W. O., Jiggins C. D., Chan Y. F. (2021) Haplotype tagging reveals parallel formation of hybrid races in two butterfly species. PNAS, 118: doi:e2015005118
Jamie G., Meier J. I. (2020) The persistence of polymorphisms across species radiations. Trends Ecol Evol, 35: 795-808
Meier J. I., Stelkens R. B., Joyce D. A., Mwaiko S., Phiri N., Schliewen U., Selz O. M., Wagner C. E., Katongo C., Seehausen O. (2019) The coincidence of ecological opportunity with hybridisation explains rapid adaptive radiation in Lake Mweru cichlids. Nature Commun. 20, 5391
Marques D. A.*, Meier J. I.*, Seehausen O. (2019) A combinatorial view on speciation and adaptive radiation (*shared first authors listed alphabetically). Trends Ecol Evol, 34:531-544
Meier J. I., Marques D. A., Mwaiko S., Wagner C. E., Excoffier L., Seehausen O. (2017) Ancient hybridization fuels rapid cichlid fish adaptive radiations. Nature Comm, 8: doi:10.1038/ncomms14363
Full list of publications: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=5C_BoWQAAAAJ&hl=de
My main research focus is on speciation and evolutionary genomics. Why do some taxa rapidly generate new species, whereas others remain species-poor? I am particularly interested in the role of hybridisation (interbreeding) and chromosomal rearrangements in rapid speciation and adaptation. My study systems include Neotropical butterflies, peacock spiders and cichlid fishes. Please find more information on our projects on our group website.
I am one of the leaders of Project Psyche - a project to sequence all 11,000 butterflies and moths found in Europe. I am also contributing to the Darwin Tree of Life Project (sequencing all eukaryotes of the British Isles) and a national coordinator for Project LepEU - population genomics of butterflies and moths. Furthermore, I am part of the ESEB-funded speciation network and I organise fortnightly webinars on research on butterflies and moths.
