Dept Biology
Ecology & Evolution
  


The Lexer Lab

Molecular ecology
&
evolutionary genetics group

Christian Lexer

Associate Professor of Evolutionary Biology


E-mail
christian.lexer@unifr.ch

Address
University of Fribourg
Department of Biology
Unit of Ecology & Evolution
Chemin du Musée 10
CH-1700 Fribourg
Switzerland

Office
+41 (0)26 300 8868

Lab
+41(0)26 300 8895

Fax
+41 (0)26 300 96 98





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Research interests

Speciation genetics, genetics of adaptation, evolution of plant mating systems, conservation biology, molecular evolution. For details visit my research page.

Curriculum vitae

1996 Master degree at the University of Salzburg, Austria.
1999 Doctoral degree at the University of Applied Life Sciences (BOKU), Vienna, Austria.
2000 - 2003 Erwin-Schrödinger postdoctoral fellow of the Austrian Science Foundation (FWF) in the lab of Prof. Loren H. Rieseberg, Department of Biology, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, U.S.A.
2001 - 2005 Subject editor, Molecular Ecology Notes, the sister journal of Molecular Ecology (Blackwell Science).
2003-2008 Appointment as Population Geneticist at the Jodrell Laboratory, Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, Richmond, Surrey, U.K. Permanent academic member of staff.
2004-2008 Decision Editor, Annals of Botany (Oxford University Press).
2006- Subject Editor, Molecular Ecology (Blackwell Science).
2006- Subject Editor, Heredity (Nature Publishing).
2008- Appointment as Associate Professor of Evolutionary Biology, Department of Biology, University of Fribourg, Switzerland.


Five representative publications

Lexer C, Welch ME, Durphy JL, Rieseberg LH. 2003. Natural selection for salt tolerance quantitative trait loci (QTLs): Implications for the origin of Helianthus paradoxus, a diploid hybrid species. Molecular Ecology 12:1225-1235.

Rieseberg LH, Raymond O, Rosenthal DM, Lai Z, Livingstone K, Nakazato T, Durphy JL, Schwarzbach AE, Donovan LA, Lexer C. 2003. Major ecological transitions in wild sunflowers facilitated by hybridization. Science 301:1211-1216.

Savolainen V, Anstett MC, Lexer C, Hutton I, Clarkson JJ, Norup MV, Powell MP, Springate D, Salamin N, Baker WJ (2006) Sympatric speciation in palms on an oceanic island. Nature 441: 210-213.

Lexer C, Buerkle A, Joseph J, Heinze B, and Fay MF (2007) Admixture in European Populus hybrid zones makes feasible the mapping of loci that contribute to reproductive isolation and trait differences. Heredity 98: 74-84.

Barbará T, Martinelli G, Fay MF, Mayo SJ, Lexer C (2007). Population differentiation and species cohesion in two closely related plants adapted to neotropical high-altitude ‘inselbergs’, Alcantarea imperialis and A. geniculata. Molecular Ecology 16: 1981-1992.