Herr Jonas Tebbe

I am a molecular ecologist working towards my PhD that focuses on the combination of genetic and chemical data to investigate chemical phenotypes in Antarctic fur seals.

The Antarctic fur seal is an extensively studied model species for which genetic and long-term life history data is readily available. Only recently, investigations on the body odour of those animals brought to light that instead of environmental effects, genetic background might be more important for the chemical composition and chemical similarity of related individuals or those who live close to each other.

Showing that such olfactory patterns seem to be stable over time in my graduate studies (M.Sc.), I am now interested in how well chemical patterns are genetically encoded. My work mainly focuses on the association of inbreeding as well as genomic relatedness on chemical diversity and similarity and how the chemical phenotype develops over different seasons. Additionally, I aim to investigate effects of immunocompetence mediated by the MHC genotype on odour and a possible connection to the microbial communities in these interesting marine predators.

In addition to my work on the seals, I am interested in canine sciences, especially cynology.