Universität Heidelberg
Centre for Organismal Studies Logo

Biodiversität und Pflanzensystematik Dr. Christiane Kiefer

Research interests

My research interests focus on different evolutionary questions in the Brassicaceae. Past and present projects are ranging from phylogeography (e.g. as in Koch et al. 2006, Kiefer et al. 2009) to questions related to trait evolution (e.g. as in Kiefer et al. 2017, Kiefer et al. 2019). I like to make use of comparative genomics for getting insights into genome evolution and for getting a hand on candidate genes related to traits of interest. 

For me one of the most exciting and complex traits is life history (further reading Kiefer et al. 2019). Broadly speaking life history can be divided into two strategies among flowering plants: annual plants complete their life cycle in one year and usually flower once while perennial plants live for many years and typically go through recurrent periods of reproduction.

The annual life history has evolved multiple times independently on family but also tribal and genus level in the Brassicaceae. Comparative genomic approaches across the Brassicaceae can help to shed light on the evolution of life history and may indicate putative candidate genes which play a role in the expression of this complex trait.

Publications

Tabellenfilter

Tabelle

Binmöller L., Volkert C., Kiefer C., Zühl L., Slawinska M., Loreth A., Nauerth B., Ibberson D., Martinez R., Mandakova T., Zipper R., Schmidt A. (2024). Differential expression and evolutionary diversification of RNA helicases in Boechera sexual and apomictic reproduction. Journal of experimental botany. 75. 10.1093/jxb/erae026.
2024
Differential expression and evolutionary diversification of RNA helicases in Boechera sexual and apomictic reproduction. Journal of experimental botany. 75. 10.1093/jxb/erae026.
Journal of experimental botany. 75.
Kiefer C., Buchmann D., Koch M.A.
2024
High-quality reference plastomes in Tillandsia species living at the dry limits.
Plant Systematics and Evolution.
Walden N., Kiefer C., Koch M.A.
2024
Unravelling complex hybrid and polyploid evolutionary relationships using phylogenetic placement of paralogs from target enrichment data.
bioRxiv preprint.
Kiefer M., Kiefer C., Koch M.A.
2024
Versatile tools for masking and annotation of plastid genomes: cpanno and masker.
Mendeley Data, V1.
Hendriks K.P., Kiefer C., Al-Shehbaz I.A., Bailey D., Hooft van Huysduynen A., Nikolov L.A., Nauheimer L., Zuntini A.R., German D.A., Franzke A., Koch M.A., Lysak M.A., Toro-Nunez O., Özudogru B., Invernón V.R., Walden N., Maurin O., Hay N.M., Shushkov P., Mandakova T., Schranz M.E., Thulin M., Windham M.D., Resetnik I., Spaniel S., Ly E., Pires J.C., Harkess A., Neuffer B., Vogt R., Bräuchler C., Rainer H., Janssens S.B., Schmull M., Forrest A., Guggisberg A., Zmarzty S., Lepschi B.J., Scarlett N., Stauffer F.W., Schönberger I., Heenan P., Baker W.J., Forest F., Mummenhoff K., Lens F.
2023
Global Brassicaceae phylogeny based on filtering of 1,000-gene dataset.
Current Biology 33: 1-17.
Stein R.E., Luque-Fernández C.R., Kiefer, C., Möbus J., Pauca-Tanco G.A., Jabbusch S., Harpke D., Bechteler J., Quandt D., Villasante F., Koch M.A.
2023
Climate-driven past and present interspecies gene flow may have contributed to shape microscale adaptation capacity in Tillandsia lomas in hyperarid south American desert systems.
Global and Planetary Change
Kiefer C., Ruiz Darte P., Schmickl R., Koch M.A.
2023
The Spatio-temporal Diversification of SRK Alleles in an Arabidopsis Polyploid Hybrid and Introgression Zone.
Perspectives in Plant Ecology, Evolution and Systematics
Koch M.A., Kiefer C., Möbus J., Quandt D., Merklinger D., Harpke D., Villasante Benavides F.
2022
Range expansion and contraction of Tillandsia landbeckii lomas in the hyperarid Chilean Atacama Desert indicates ancient introgression and geneflow.
PPEES 56: 125689.
Möbus, J., Kiefer, C., Quandt, D. et al.
2021
Setting the evolutionary timeline: Tillandsia landbeckii in the Chilean Atacama Desert.
Plant Syst Evol 307, 39
Madrid, E., Severing, E., Ansorena, E., Kiefer, C., Brand, L., Martinez-Gallegos, R., Woetzel, S., Kemi, U., Jiao, WB, Schneeberger, K. and Coupland, G.
2021
Duplication and transposition of MADS-domain transcription factor genes in annual and perennial Arabis species modulates flowering.
Proc Natl Acad Sci USA, 118(39). e2109204118
Agerbirk N., Hansen C.C., Kiefer C., Hauser T.P., Ørgaard M., Bruun Asmussen Lange C., Cipollini D., Koch M.A.
2021
Comparison of glucosinolate diversity in the crucifer tribe Cardamineae and the remaining order Brassicales highlights repetitive evolutionary loss and gain of biosynthetic steps.
Phytochemistry.
Sergeeva A, Liu H, Mai HJ, Mettler-Altmann T, Kiefer C, Coupland G, Bauer P.
2021
Cytokinin-promoted secondary growth and nutrient storage in the perennial stem zone of Arabis alpina.
Plant. J. 105: 1459-1476. Epub 2021 Feb 1. PMID: 33336445.
Kiefer C.
2021
Genomevolution bei Pflanzen.
essentials. Springer Spektrum, Wiesbaden.
Agerbirk N., Hansen C.C., Olsen C.E., Kiefer C., Hauser T.P., Christensen S., Jensen Rysbjerg K., Ørgaard M., Bruun Asmussen Lange C., Cipollini D., Koch M.A.
2021
Glucosinolate profiles and phylogeny in Barbarea compared to other tribe Cardamineae (Brassicaceae) and Reseda (Resedaceae), based on a library of ion trap HPLC-MS/MS data of reference desulfoglucosinolates.
Phytochemistry.
Walden N., German D.A., Wolf E.M., Kiefer M., Rigault P., Huang X-C., Kiefer C., Schmickl R., Franzke A., Neuffer B., Mummenhoff K., Koch M.A.
2020
Nested whole-genome duplications coincide with diversification and high morphological disparity in Brassicaceae.
Nature Communications 11,3795
Lupanga, U., Röhrich, R., Askani, J., Hilmer, S., Kiefer, C., Krebs, M., Kanazawa, T., Ueda, T., Schumacher, K.
2020
The Arabidopsis V-ATPase is localized to the TGN/EE via a seed plant-specific motif.
eLife 2020
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.60568
Hyun, Y., Vincent, C., Tilmes, V., Bergonzi, S., Kiefer, C., Richter, R., Martinez-Gallegos, R., Severing, E., Coupland, G.
2019
A regulatory circuit conferring varied flowering response to cold in annual and perennial plants.
Science 363, 6425, 409-412
Kiefer, C., Bergonzi, S., Brand, L., Wötzel, S., Koch M.A.
2019
Contrasting life history traits in monocarpic versus polycarpic plants from a molecular-evolutionary point of view.
Annual Plant Reviews 2: 1-25.
Kiefer, C., Willing, E.-M., Jiao, W.-B., Sun, H., Piednoël, M., Hümann, U., Hartwig, B., Koch, M.A., Schneeberger, K.
2019
Interspecies association mapping links reduced CG to TG substitution rates to the loss of gene-body methylation.
Nature Plants.
Koch, M.A., Kleinpeter, D., Auer, E., [...], Kiefer. C.
2019
Living at the dry limits: ecological genetics of Tillandsia landbeckii lomas in the Chilean Atacama Desert.
Plant Syst Evol 305, 1041?1053 (2019).
Mable B.K., Brysting A.K., Jørgensen, M.H., Carbonell A.K. Z., Kiefer, C., Ruiz-Duarte P., Lagesen K., Koch M. A.
2018
Adding Complexity to Complexity: Gene Family Evolution in Polyploids.
Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution 6.
Kiefer C., Severing E., Karl R., Bergonzi S., Koch M., Tresch A., Coupland G.
2017
Divergence of annual and perennial species in the Brassicaceae and the contribution of cis-acting variation at FLC orthologues.
Molecular Ecology 26:
Jiao W.-B., Garcia G., Hartwig B., Kiefer C., Baker D., Severing E., Willing E.-M., Woetzel S., Madrid-Herrero E., Huettel B., Hümann U., Reinhard R., Koch M.A., Swan D., Clavijo B., Coupland G., Schneeberger K.
2017
Improving and correcting the contiguity of long-read genome assemblies of three plant species using optical mapping and chromatin capture data.
Genome Research 27(5): gr.213652.116
Bewick A.J., Ji L., Niederhuth C.E., Willing E.-M., Hofmeister B.T., Shi X., Wang L., Lu Z., Rohr N.A., Hartwig B., Kiefer C., Deal R.B., Schmutz J., Grimwood J., Stroud H., Jacobsen S.E., Schneeberger K., Zhang X., Schmitz R.J.
2016
On the origin and evolutionary consequences of gene body DNA methylation.
PNAS
Heidel A.J., Kiefer C., Coupland G., Rose L.E.
2016
Pinpointing genes underlying annual/perennial transitions with comparative genomics.
BMC Genomics 17: 921
Willing E-M, Rawat V, Mandáková T, Maumus F, James GV, Nordström KJV, Becker C, Warthmann N, Chica C, Szarzynska B, Zytnicki M, Albani MC, Kiefer C, Bergonzi S, Castaings L, Mateos JL, Berns MC, Bujdoso N, Piofczyk T, de Lorenzo L, Barrero-Sicilia C, Mateos I, Piednoël M, Hagmann J, Chen-Min-Tao R, Iglesias-Fernández R, Schuster SC, Alonso-Blanco C, Roudier F, Carbonero P, Paz-Ares J, Davis SJ, Pecinka A, Quesneville H, Colot V, Lysak MA, Weigel D, Coupland G, Schneeberger K.
2015
Genome expansion of Arabis alpina linked with retrotransposition and reduced symmetric DNA methylation.
Nature Plants 1.
Mau M., Lovell J.T., Corral J.M., Kiefer C., Koch M.A., Aliyu O.M., McKay J., Sharbel T.F.
2015
Hybrid apomicts trapped in the ecological niches of their sexual ancestors.
PNAS May 5, 2015 vol. 112 no. 18 E2357-E2365
Lovell, J.T., Aliyu W., Mau, M., Schranz E., Koch M., Kiefer C., Song, B.-H., Mitchell-Olds T., Sharbel, T.F
2013
On the origin and evolution of apomixis in Boechera.
Plant Reprod.
Kiefer C., Koch MA
2012
A continental-wide perspective: The genepool of nuclear encoded ribosomal DNA and single-copy gene sequences in North American Boechera (Brassicaceae)."
PLoS ONE 7(5): e36491.
Karl R., Kiefer C., Ansell S., Koch M.A.
2012
Systematics and evolution of arctic-alpine Arabis alpina L. (Brassicaceae) and its closest relatives in the eastern Mediterranean.
Amer. J Bot. 99: 778-794.
Wang, R., Albani, M.C., Vincent, C., Bergonzi, S., Luan, M., Bai, Y., Kiefer, C., Castillo, R., Coupland, G.
2011
Aa TFL1 confers an age-dependent response to vernalization in perennial Arabis alpina.
Plant Cell 23, 1307-1321.
Koch M.A., Karl R., Kiefer C., Al-Shebaz I.A.
2010
Colonizing the American continent - Systematics of the genus Arabis in North America (Brassicaceae).
Amer. J. Bot. 97: 1040-1057.
Tröndle D., Schröder S., Kassemeyer H.H., Kiefer C., Koch M.A., Nick P.
2010
Molecular Phylogeny of the Genus Vitis Based on Plastidic Markers.
Am J Bot 97: 1168-1178.
Schurr U., Weyen J., Coupland G., Kiefer C., Simon R., Müller A.
2010
SynRg ? Biotechnologie zur Steigerung von Ertrag und Ertragsstabilität nachwachsender Rohstoffe.
Chemie Ingenieur Technik 82(9): 1522-2640.
Kiefer C., Dobe? C., Koch, M.
2009
Boechera or not? Phylogeny and phylogeograpy of eastern North American Boechera species (Brassicaceae).
Taxon 58 (4): 1109-1121.
Kiefer C., Dobes C., Sharbel T., Koch M.
2009
Phylogeographic structure of the chloroplast DNA genepool in North American Boechera - a genus and continental wide perspective.
Mol. Phyl. Evol. 52 (2): 303-311.
Calonje M., Martin-Bavo S., Dobe? C., Gong W., Jordon-Thaden I., Kiefer, C., Kiefer M., Paule J., Schmickl R., Koch M.
2008
A Non-coding nuclear DNA marker in phylogenetic reconstructions.
Pl. Syst. Evol.
Schmickl R., Kiefer, C., Dobe? C., Koch M. A.
2008
Evolution of trnF(GAA) pseudogenes in cruciferous plants.
Pl. Syst. Evol.
Dobe? Ch., Koch M., Kiefer, C.
2007
Apomixis and radiation at low ploidy levels exemplified in the evolutionary model genus Boechera (Brassicaceae).
Regnum Vegetabile 147 : 391-412.
Dobe? C., Kiefer C., Kiefer M., Koch M.
2007
Platsidic trnfUUC pseudogenes in North American genus Boechera (Brassicaceae): mechanistic aspects of evolution.
Plant Biology 9: 502-515.
Koch M., Dobe? C., Kiefer C., Schmickl R., Klimes L., Koch M.A.
2007
Supernetwork identifies multiple events of plastid trnF(GAA) pseudogene evolution in the Brassicaceae.
Mol. Biol. Evol. 24: 63-73.
Koch, M., Kiefer, C.
2006
Molecules and migration: biogeographical studies in cruciferous plants.
Plant Systematics and Evolution 259 (2-4): 121-142.
Koch, M., Kiefer, C., Vogel, J., Ehrich, D., Brochmann, C., Mummenhoff, K.
2006
Three times out of Asia Minor - the phylogeography of Arabis alpina L (Brassicaceae).
Molecular Ecology

English

Kontaktinformationen