Universität Basel Phil.-Natw. Fakultät Zoologisches Institut - Evolutionary Biology The Salzburger Group

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Michael Matschiner

Graduate student in the group of Walter Salzburger. Works on the adaptive radiation of Antarctic icefishes.

Current research

Antarctic fishes of the suborder Notothenioidei provide a rare example of an adaptive radiation of fish in a marine environment. Antarctic waters are characterized by subzero temperatures, the presence of sea ice, strong currents and habitat limitation. Yet notothenioid fishes successfully adapted to, and radiated in this extreme environment.
Little is known about the causes of this radiation. The evolution of antifreeze glycoproteins has been suggested as a potential key innovation that enabled notothenioids to diversify and occupy niches other teleost fishes couldn't adapt to. However other factors such as cyclical glaciation during ice ages may also have played a role in the notothenioid diversification. As part of my PhD studies, I investigate questions such as

• How can there be so much diversity in notothenioid fishes despite large levels of gene flow over huge distances?
• When and why did notothenioids start to radiate in Antarctic waters?
• What role did ice ages play in the notothenioid radiation?

In addition, I am involved in the development of bioinformatic software solutions for genetic analyses.

In my spare time

I found some nice bouldering spots around Basel, in the Jura and indoors, and I'm making good use of it. I love the occassional hike in the Alps and participate in all sorts of sport from football to volleyball, badminton or ultimate frisbee.
And afterwards, I'm passionate about cooking dishes that go well with red wine.

Curriculum vitae

Born in 1979 in Neumarkt, Germany
2008-ongoing	PhD thesis at the Zoological Institute, University of Basel
2002-2008	M.sc at the Department of Biology, University of Konstanz (Master thesis at the University of Basel)

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Publications

Papers

• Palandačič A, Matschiner M, Sloj A: Genetic evidence for long-range subterranean dispersal of fish (Cyprinidae: Delminichthys adspersus). submitted.
• Damerau M, Matschiner M, Salzburger W, Hanel R: Comparative population genetics of seven notothenioid fish species in the southern Scotia Arc, Antarctica. submitted.
• Rutschmann S, Matschiner M, Damerau M, Muschick M, Lehmann MF, Hanel R, Salzburger W: Parallel ecological diversification in Antarctic notothenioid fishes as evidence for adaptive radiation. Molecular Ecology 20(22), 4707-4721. pdf link
• Matschiner M, Hanel R, Salzburger W (2011) On the origin of the notothenioid adaptive radiation. PLoS ONE 6(4), e18911. pdf link
• Matschiner M, Hanel R, Salzburger W (2009) Gene flow by larval dispersal in the Antarctic notothenioid fish Gobionotothen gibberifrons. Molecular Ecology 18, 2574-2587. pdf link
• Matschiner M, Salzburger W (2009) TANDEM: integrating automated allele binning into genetics and genomics workflows. Bioinformatics 25(15), 1982-1983. pdf link

Book chapters

• Matschiner M, Hanel R, Salzburger W (2010) Phylogeography and speciation processes in marine fishes and fishes from large freshwater lakes. In: Phylogeography: concepts, intraspecific patterns and speciation processes (ed Rutgers DS), pp. 1-29. Nova Science Publishers, New York. pdf link

Media coverage

• Extreme Anpassung (November 2011). Uniintern. pdf
• Angepasst ans Leben in extremer Kälte (November 2011). 20 Minuten. pdf
• Antarktis-Abkühlung führt zum Siegeszug der Eisfische (April 2011). derStandard. pdf
• Eisfische in der Antarktis bilden neue Arten (April 2011). Uninews, University of Basel. pdf
• 4 X Avantgarde (February 2009) Bild der Wissenschaft plus, by Jo Schilling. pdf

Presentations

Invited talks

• Antarktische Eisfische: Artbildung durch Anpassungen an eine extreme Umwelt. 11/03/2011, Prix de Quervain Symposium, Swiss Committee on Polar and High Altitude Research.
• The origin of the notothenioid adaptive radiation. 10/29/2010, IFM-Geomar, University of Kiel.
• Scientific visualization. 10/13/2010, Zurich University of Arts.
• Population genetics meets oceanography: larval dispersal across the Scotia Sea, Antarctica. 07/27/2009, Institute of Zoology, University of Graz.

Posters

• Gene flow and adaptive radiations: The population genetic structure of the humped rockcod (Gobionotothen gibberifrons). Annual meeting of the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution, Barcelona 2008. pdf

Research and travel grants

• Entstehung der Artenvielfalt Antarktischer Eisfische. Freiwillige Akademische Gesellschaft Research Grant. 7 500 CHF.
• Guarda workshop, Guarda 2009. Travel grant. 276 CHF.
• Annual Meeting of the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution, Barcelona 2008. Travel grant. 430 CHF.
• Adaptive radiation in an extreme environment - genetic population structure in Antarctic notothenioids. Volkswagen Foundation PhD Scholarship. 119 800 €.