The evolution
of meiosis through biological adaptation
Understanding biological exceptions to reveal broader evolutionary principles.
Why exceptional systems?
Much of biology has been built on the understanding of patterns. But evolution also happens through exceptions.
We study how living organisms adapt meiosis, one of the most fundamental processes of reproduction, to unconventional chromosome architectures. Our models are holocentric plants: species whose chromosomes carry centromeres along their entire length and that have profoundly reorganized the conventional logic of chromosome segregation.
Combining evolutionary biology, cytogenetics, genomics and cell biology, we ask how these systems recombine, segregate and remain stable, and what they reveal about how evolution finds new functional possibilities.
Current research themes
Evolution of holocentric chromosomes
How unconventional chromosome organization has evolved independently across lineages, and how it shapes reproductive biology.
Genome organization
How chromosome structure, centromere organization and genome evolution relate, read from high-quality genome assemblies.
Meiotic adaptation
The molecular mechanisms that make meiosis work in organisms with non-canonical chromosome architectures.
Comparative biology
Exceptional biological systems as a way to expand what we know about adaptation, variation and evolutionary diversity.
Scientific progress depends not only on confirming established models but also on investigating the systems that challenge them.
Group Leader
Dr. André Marques, Research Group Leader, Evolution of Meiosis, Department of Chromosome Biology, Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research
André Marques is a plant biologist whose research focuses on the evolution of meiosis, chromosome biology and biological adaptation. His work investigates how unconventional chromosome architectures shape reproductive processes and influence genome evolution.
At the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research in Cologne, he leads a research group that combines cytogenetics, genomics, molecular biology and advanced microscopy to study the mechanisms underlying meiotic adaptation and chromosome evolution in plants. In 2023 he was awarded an ERC Starting Grant for the project HoloRECOMB, and he is a member of the CEPLAS Cluster of Excellence on Plant Sciences.
André Marques obtained his PhD in 2016 at the Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE), Recife, under the supervision of Andrea Pedrosa-Harand and co-supervision of Andreas Houben (IPK-Gatersleben), working on holocentric Rhynchospora. He then led projects as a CNPq-funded independent researcher at the Federal University of Alagoas (UFAL), Arapiraca (2016–2019), with a short postdoctoral stay in the Peret lab, Montpellier (2018), before establishing the Marques Lab at MPIPZ in 2019.
Links: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9567-2576 · amarques@mpipz.mpg.de · X @marques_et_al · Bluesky @amarques.bsky.social
Latest from the lab
2026
Sex without crossovers
Our study of Rhynchospora tenuis is out in Nature: meiosis without crossovers can mimic clonal reproduction. Read the paper
2026
Carnivorous plant genomes, reviewed
A Trends in Genetics review on complexity and innovation in carnivorous plant genomes, with contributions from the lab. Read the review
2025
Dogroses and their bimodal centromeres
A collaboration published in Nature shows how centromere size explains the unique meiosis of pentaploid dogroses. Read the paper
2025
Same but different
André Marques and Inés Drinnenberg compare centromere regulation in holocentric insects and plants in Current Opinion in Cell Biology. Read the review
January 2026
Meng Zhang PhD defence
Meng has successfully defended her PhD thesis with the exceptional mark 'summa cum laude'
Marques Lab is the Evolution of Meiosis research group at the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research in Cologne, Germany. Our work is supported by the Max Planck Society, the European Research Council (ERC Starting Grant HoloRECOMB), Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) and the CEPLAS Cluster of Excellence.