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Prof. Dr. Andreas Houben

Research focus

We decipher the regulation, organization, segregation and evolution of mitotic, meiotic and interphase chromosomes to unravel basic mechanisms of chromosome biology in model, wild, and crop species. The knowledge gained will be used to accelerate and optimize the breeding process of crop plants and to develop novel chromosome analysis and manipulation tools. A combination of different DNA-, RNA- and protein-based methods in combination with bioinformatics, optical and transgenic tools is employed to reach the goals.

Research picture Andreas Houben

© Andreas Houben

Most important publications

  1. Kuo Y, Neumann, P, Chen J, Fuchs F, Schubert V, Kumke K., Sader MA, Melzer M, Zihao M, Himmelbach A, Hentrich H, Macas J, Houben A. (2025) Kinetochore mutations and histone phosphorylation pattern changes preceded are associated with holo- and macro-monocentromere evolution. Nature Comm (in press)
  2. Chen J, Bartos J, Boudichevskaia A, Voigt A, Rabanus-Wallace MT, Dreissig S, Tulpova Z, Simkova H, Macas J, Kim G, Buhl J, Burstenbinder K, Blattner FR, Fuchs J, Schmutzer T, Himmelbach A, Schubert V, Houben A (2024) The genetic mechanism of B chromosome drive in rye illuminated by chromosome-scale assembly. Nat Commun 15(1):9686. doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-53799-w.
  3. Kuo YT, Camara AS, Schubert V, Neumann P, Macas J, Melzer M, Chen J, Fuchs J, Abel S, Klocke E, Huettel B, Himmelbach A, Demidov D, Dunemann F, Mascher M, Ishii T, Marques A, Houben A (2023) Holocentromeres can consist of merely a few megabase-sized satellite arrays. Nat Commun 14(1):3502. doi: 10.1038/s41467-023-38922-7.
  4. Karimi-Ashtiyani R, Ishii T, Niessen M, Stein N, Heckmann S, Gurushidze M, Banaei-Moghaddam AM, Fuchs J, Schubert V, Koch K, Weiss O, Demidov D, Schmidt K, Kumlehn J, Houben A (2015) Point mutation impairs centromeric CENH3 loading and induces haploid plants. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 112(36):11211-11216. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1504333112.
  5. Heckmann S, Jankowska M, Schubert V, Kumke K, Ma W, Houben A (2014) Alternative meiotic chromatid segregation in the holocentric plant Luzula elegans. Nat Commun 5:4979. doi: 10.1038/ncomms5979.
Prof. Dr. Andreas Houben
Prof. Dr. Andreas Houben

Telephone+49 39482 5486

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Chromosome Structure & Function
Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK)

https://www.ipk-gatersleben.de/en/research/breeding-research/chromosome-structure-and-function