Publications

Have a look at our latest publications!
Selected Publications

Weller, H.I., Kratochwil, C.F. and Staps, M. (2026). Color patterns as a model for connecting developmental mechanisms to phenotypic evolution. Nature Communications, in press.
A framework for connecting pattern formation to pattern diversification, setting out which developmental parameters have to be measured before variation between species can be attributed to a mechanism.

Konstantopoulou, A., Löytynoja, A., Koller, T., Olkkonen, E., et al., Kratochwil, C.F. and Olsen, M.T. (2026). . bioRxiv. Preprint.
Whole-genome data show contemporary hybridization between Baltic and Atlantic grey seals, with differentiation confined to localized regions rather than distributed across the genome.

Kratochwil, C.F. and Mallarino, R. (2023). . Annual Review of Genetics 57.
A synthesis of the cellular and genetic mechanisms that generate vertebrate color patterns, and of how changes in those mechanisms produce evolutionary diversity.

Jernvall, J.*, Di-Poï, N.*, Mikkola, M.L.* and Kratochwil, C.F.* (2023). . Evolution & Development 25, 410-417.
A proposal for quantifying developmental robustness in a way that is comparable across organs and species, using deviation from bilateral symmetry as the measure. The conceptual basis of our work on left-right variation.

Santos, M.E.*, Lopes, J. and Kratochwil, C.F.* (2023). . EvoDevo 14, 1-21.
An overview of East African cichlids as a model clade: their phylogeny, the pace of their radiations, and the experimental and genomic resources available for them.

Kratochwil, C.F., Kautt, A.F., Nater, A., Härer, A., Liang, Y., Henning, F. and Meyer, A. (2022). . Nature Communications 13, 296.
An intronic transposon insertion associates with the gold-dark polymorphism in Midas cichlids, and the same allele is found across species, indicating that the polymorphism predates their divergence.

Urban, S., Nater, A., Meyer, A. and Kratochwil, C.F. (2021). . Molecular Biology and Evolution 38, 465-477.
Repeated evolution of the same stripe pattern proceeded from different sources of allelic variation, standing variation in some lineages and new mutations in others.

Kautt, A.F.*, Kratochwil, C.F.*, Nater, A.*, et al. and Meyer, A. (2020). . Nature 588, 106-111.
Whole-genome comparisons of Midas cichlid radiations in two crater lakes reveal contrasting genomic signatures of divergence, indicating that sympatric speciation can proceed by more than one route.

Kratochwil, C.F., Liang, Y., Gerwin, J., Woltering, J.M., Urban, S., Henning, F., Machado-Schiaffino, G., Hulsey, C.D. and Meyer, A. (2018). . Science 362, 457-460.
Regulatory changes at agrp2 underlie the repeated gain and loss of horizontal stripes in independent cichlid radiations, an example of convergent evolution converging on the same locus.

* equal contribution. In bold: members of the group, and doctoral researchers and master's students supervised or co-supervised by Claudius Kratochwil.

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