Ralf Janßen

The paper identifies a novel gene, beer belly, as a regulator of segmentation in spiders using single-cell RNA sequencing and shows its evolutionary loss in mammals and holometabolous insects.

The paper examines head patterning in a spider, identifying neurosecretory centres and pioneer neurons, providing new insights into arthropod development and evolution.

The paper compares gene expression and chromatin accessibility of ohnologues and single-copy genes in two arachnids, one with a history of whole genome duplication, to assess subfunctionalization.

The paper examines retention of ohnologs in developmental gene families across arachnopulmonate species, finding extensive retention and evolutionary patterns in Hox, Wnt, and frizzled genes.

The paper analyzes the house spider genome to identify an ancient whole-genome duplication shared by spiders and scorpions, distinct from horseshoe crab duplications.