I am a molecular ecologist with a strong interest in understanding biodiversity on different levels, from genes to ecosystems. I am especially interested in how biodiversity changes along ecological gradients. In most of my projects I infer the diversity of species and communities by using genetic information obtained through barcoding, metabarcoding, metagenomics and metatranscriptomics.
Keywords
Molecular ecology, Metabarcoding, Metagenomics, Biomonitoring, Communities, Stress response, Ecological gradients
Keypublications
- Macher, J.N., Prazeres, M., Taudien, S., Jompa, J., Sadekov, A., Renema, W. (2021). Integrating morphology and metagenomics to understand taxonomic variability of Amphisorus (Foraminifera, Miliolida) from Western Australia and Indonesia. Plos one 16 (1), e0244616
- Macher, J.N., Drakou, K., Papatheodoulou, A., van Der Hoorn, Vasquez, M. (2020) The mitochondrial genomes of 11 aquatic macroinvertebrate species from Cyprus. Metabarcoding and Metagenomics 4, e58259
- Macher, J.N., Speksnijder, A., Choo, L.Q., van Der Hoorn, B., Renema, W. (2019). Uncovering bacterial and functional diversity in macroinvertebrate mitochondrial-metagenomic datasets by differential centrifugation. Scientific reports 9 (1), 1-9
- Macher, J. N., Vivancos, A., Piggott, J. J., Centeno, F. C., Matthaei, C. D., & Leese, F. (2018). Comparison of environmental DNA and bulk‐sample metabarcoding using highly degenerate cytochrome c oxidase I primers. Molecular ecology resources, 18(6), 1456-1468.
- Macher, J. N., Zizka, V. M. A., Weigand, A. M., & Leese, F. (2018). A simple centrifugation protocol for metagenomic studies increases mitochondrial DNA yield by two orders of magnitude. Methods in Ecology and Evolution, 9(4), 1070-1074.
- Weigand, A. M., & Macher, J. N. (2018). A DNA metabarcoding protocol for hyporheic freshwater meiofauna: Evaluating highly degenerate COI primers and replication strategy. Metabarcoding and Metagenomics, 2, e26869.
- Macher, J. N., Salis, R. K., Blakemore, K. S., Tollrian, R., Matthaei, C. D., & Leese, F. (2016). Multiple-stressor effects on stream invertebrates: DNA barcoding reveals contrasting responses of cryptic mayfly species. Ecological Indicators, 61, 159-169.
- Macher, J. N., Rozenberg, A., Pauls, S. U., Tollrian, R., Wagner, R., & Leese, F. (2015). Assessing the phylogeographic history of the montane caddisfly Thremma gallicum using mitochondrial and restriction‐site‐associated DNA (RAD) markers. Ecology and evolution, 5(3), 648-662.