Natascha Turetzek 

Principal Investigator (PI) 
We are interested in genetic and molecular mechanisms influencing phenotypic diversification and adaption in arhtopods (insects and spiders).

Foto: Carolin Bleese

André Amaral (PhD student co-supervision with Joachim Haug and Viktor Baranov)

Evolution of mandibles in Chironomidae

Dorothea Grillmayer (Phd student)

Molecular mechanisms and phenotypic consequences of paralog divergence in insects and chelicerates
Joint project in the DFG Priority Program Gevol
https://www.g-evol.com
Foto: Carolin Bleese

Isabela Tamaru Nakamura (Student assistant)

Studying gene duplication and their impact on spider development and evolution

Kaja Grote (Msc Thesis)

Paralog divergence in Arachnopulmonata

Yaren Keçimen (Msc Thesis)

Temperature Effects on Chironomus riparius Larvae Development and Resulting Fitness Effects

Bowen Zhang (Bsc Thesis)

Temperature Effects on Chironomus riparius Larvae Development and Resulting Fitness Effects

Xenja Steffen (Bsc Thesis)

TRGs in Parasteatoda 

Marc Vogel (Bsc Thesis)

Heat-wave effects on spider mating, fitness and fecundity 

Lab Alumni

2026

Ana Paula Viccon Arguelles (Master Thesis)
Sensory gene evolution across spiders

Duğçar Ebrar Erdoğan (PhD)
Gene and genome duplication and phenotypic novelties – Insights from spiders and insects.
Joint project in DFG Priority Program Gevol
https://www.g-evol.com


2025
Burak Bürgeç (Master Thesis)
Evolutionary and Functional Analyses of Pax and Orphan Genes in Spider Eye and Sense OrganDevelopment

Isabela Tamaru Nakamura (Bachelor Thesis)
TRGs in
Parasteatoda 

Isabella Schindelhauer (Master Thesis)
Comparative analysis of sense organ development in female Drosophila genitalia


2024

Dorothea Grillmayer (Master Thesis)

The role of dpp and wg in Drosophila ovipositor diversification

Jonas Roth (Bachelor Thesis)
Evolution of Pax gene function

Marie Pfefferer (Bachelor Thesis)
Heatwave effects on spider embryonic development


2023

Venkata Sai Poojitha Koka (Master Thesis & Student Assistant)
Spider sense organ development & Heat wave effects on arthropods (in collaboration with Cristina Tuni (Turin))


Kaja Grote (Bachelor Thesis)
Life cycle of Chironomous riparius


Hao "Steve" Yang Lay (Bachelor Thesis)
Comparative analysis of sense organ development in female Drosophila genitalia


Chun Yin "Jerry" Leung (Master Thesis)
Generating transgenic tools to study female Drosophila genital sensilla


Ingrid Papst (Bachelor Thesis) Sense organ development on the female Drosophila Ovipositor


Pallavi Sekhar (Master Thesis) Candidate gene expression profiling for female Drosophila genital sensilla


2022

Pinaki Chakraborty (Master Thesis) Functional analysis for candidate genes involved in female genitalia sensilla development


Atharv Arora (Master Thesis) Generating transgenic tools to study female Drosophila genital sensilla


Sebastian Kreßmann (Bachelor Thesis)

Arian Seyed Sadri (Master Thesis)Sense organ diversification in arthropods: The role of prepatterning 

Poojitha Sai Koka Ventaka (Reserach Course) Genetic basis of sense organ precursor formation in the common house spider P. tepidariorum

Sabeel un Naeem (Research course) Fate map of female Drosophila genital sensilla


2021

Magdalena Ines Schacht (Guest PhD)

Bharadwaj Marella (Master Thesis)Transcriptomic profiling of external genital sensilla during larval and pupal development in different Drosophila species.

Apostolos Angelakakis (Bachelor student & Research assistant shared with Cristina Tuni) Studies the mating behaviour in the common house spider Parasteatoda tepidariorum

Lina Suprata Scholz (Bachelor student) Screening transgenic tools to study female Drosophila genital sensilla

Alexander Nikola (Bachelor student) Functional studies of proneural genes in the common house spider P. tepidariorum

Dina Iusupova (Individual Research training)

Vishnu Vellore (Research course)

Alina Schreiner (Research assistant)

2020

Fabian Platten (Research course)
Sakshi Singh (Research assistant)
Matthias Janeschik (Research Project)

2019
Ruixun Wang (Master)“Evolution and Development of Arthropod Sense Organ Systems”
Natalia Reshetnikova (Research course)
Alexander Günther Nikola (Research course)