ZFIN ID: ZDB-PERS-971205-2
Geisler, Robert
Email: robert.geisler@kit.edu
URL: http://www.ezrc.kit.edu
Affiliation: European Zebrafish Resource Center (EZRC)
and also: Geisler Lab
Address: Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) Institute of Toxicology and Genetics Hermann-von-Helmholtz-Platz 1 Building 305, Room 145 76344 Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen Germany
Country: Germany
Phone: +49 721 60824664
Fax: +49 721 60823354
ORCID ID: 0000-0002-3909-8311


BIOGRAPHY AND RESEARCH INTERESTS
1982-1988: Undergraduate student in physiological chemistry, Tübingen University.

1988-1989: Diploma student (physiological chemistry, Tübingen University)

1989-1996: Doctoral student (Dr. rer. nat. in genetics, Tübingen University), in the laboratory of Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard, Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology

1996-1999: Postdoctoral fellow (zebrafish genomics) in the laboratory of Pascal Haffter, Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology

1999-2009: Group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology (MPI EB), with a focus on genome mapping and gene expression profiling in the zebrafish, particularly of pigment genes. Scientific Coordinator of the European ZF-MODELS consortium.

Since 2009: Group leader at the Institute of Toxicology and Genetics, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). Managing Director of the European Zebrafish Resource Center (EZRC). Scientific Coordinator of the European ZF-HEALTH consortium.

Current projects:

1. Genome-wide phenotyping of of knock-out mutations
2. Identification of zebrafish genes that control embryonic/larval motility and behavior
3. High-throughput methods for mapping of mutations by sequencing
4. Generation and characterisation of inbred zebrafish lines.


PUBLICATIONS
Turner, K.J., Hoyle, J., Valdivia, L.E., Cerveny, K.L., Hart, W., Mangoli, M., Geisler, R., Rees, M., Houart, C., Poole, R.J., Wilson, S.W., Gestri, G. (2019) Abrogation of Stem Loop Binding Protein (Slbp) function leads to a failure of cells to transition from proliferation to differentiation, retinal coloboma and midline axon guidance deficits. PLoS One. 14:e0211073
Joshi, S., Virdi, S., Etard, C., Geisler, R., Strähle, U. (2018) Mutation of a serine near the catalytic site of the choline acetyltransferase a gene almost completely abolishes motility of the zebrafish embryo. PLoS One. 13:e0207747
Köhler, A., Collymore, C., Finger-Baier, K., Geisler, R., Kaufmann, L., Pounder, K.C., Schulte-Merker, S., Valentim, A., Varga, Z.M., Weiss, J., Strähle, U. (2017) Report of Workshop on Euthanasia for Zebrafish-A Matter of Welfare and Science. Zebrafish. 14(6):547-551
Shimizu, H., Langenbacher, A.D., Huang, J., Wang, K., Otto, G., Geisler, R., Wang, Y., Chen, J.N. (2017) The Calcineurin-FoxO-MuRF1 signaling pathway regulates myofibril integrity in cardiomyocytes. eLIFE. 6
Geisler, R., Köhler, A., Dickmeis, T., Strähle, U. (2017) Archiving of zebrafish lines can reduce animal experiments in biomedical research. EMBO reports. 18(1):1-2
Geisler, R., Borel, N., Ferg, M., Maier, J.V., Strähle, U. (2016) Maintenance of Zebrafish Lines at the European Zebrafish Resource Center. Zebrafish. 13 Suppl 1:S19-23
Frohnhöfer, H.G., Geiger-Rudolph, S., Pattky, M., Meixner, M., Huhn, C., Maischein, H.M., Geisler, R., Gehring, I., Maderspacher, F., Nüsslein-Volhard, C., Irion, U. (2016) Spermidine, but not spermine, is essential for pigment pattern formation in zebrafish. Biology Open. 5(6):736-44
Carmean, V., Yonkers, M.A., Tellez, M.B., Willer, J.R., Willer, G.B., Gregg, R.G., Geisler, R., Neuhauss, S.C., Ribera, A.B. (2015) pigk mutation underlies macho behavior and affects Rohon-Beard cell excitability. Journal of neurophysiology. 114(2):1146-57
Dooley, C.M., Schwarz, H., Mueller, K.P., Mongera, A., Konantz, M., Neuhauss, S.C., Nüsslein-Volhard, C., and Geisler, R. (2013) Slc45a2 and V-ATPase are regulators of melanosomal pH homeostasis in zebrafish, providing a mechanism for human pigment evolution and disease. Pigment cell & melanoma research. 26(2):205-217
Strähle, U., Scholz, S., Geisler, R., Greiner, P., Hollert, H., Rastegar, S., Schumacher, A., Selderslaghs, I., Weiss, C., Witters, H., and Braunbeck, T. (2012) Zebrafish embryos as an alternative to animal experiments-A commentary on the definition of the onset of protected life stages in animal welfare regulations. Reproductive toxicology (Elmsford, N.Y.). 33(2):128-132
Lobbardi, R., Lambert, G., Zhao, J., Geisler, R., Kim, H.R., and Rosa, F.M. (2011) Fine-tuning of Hh signaling by the RNA-binding protein Quaking to control muscle development. Development (Cambridge, England). 138(9):1783-1794
Choi, J., Mouillesseaux, K., Wang, Z., Fiji, H.D., Kinderman, S.S., Otto, G.W., Geisler, R., Kwon, O., and Chen, J.N. (2011) Aplexone targets the HMG-CoA reductase pathway and differentially regulates arteriovenous angiogenesis. Development (Cambridge, England). 138(6):1173-1181
Weger, B.D., Sahinbas, M., Otto, G.W., Mracek, P., Armant, O., Dolle, D., Lahiri, K., Vallone, D., Ettwiller, L., Geisler, R., Foulkes, N.S., and Dickmeis, T. (2011) The light responsive transcriptome of the zebrafish: function and regulation. PLoS One. 6(2):e17080
Becker-Heck, A., Zohn, I.E., Okabe, N., Pollock, A., Lenhart, K.B., Sullivan-Brown, J., McSheene, J., Loges, N.T., Olbrich, H., Haeffner, K., Fliegauf, M., Horvath, J., Reinhardt, R., Nielsen, K.G., Marthin, J.K., Baktai, G., Anderson, K.V., Geisler, R., Niswander, L., Omran, H., and Burdine, R.D. (2011) The coiled-coil domain containing protein CCDC40 is essential for motile cilia function and left-right axis formation. Nature Genetics. 43(1):79-84
Schonthaler, H.B., Franz-Odendaal, T.A., Hodel, C., Gehring, I., Geisler, R., Schwarz, H., Neuhauss, S.C., and Dahm, R. (2010) The zebrafish mutant bumper shows a hyperproliferation of lens epithelial cells and fibre cell degeneration leading to functional blindness. Mechanisms of Development. 127(3-4):203-219
Jacoby, A.S., Busch-Nentwich, E., Bryson-Richardson, R.J., Hall, T.E., Berger, J., Berger, S., Sonntag, C., Sachs, C., Geisler, R., Stemple, D.L., and Currie, P.D. (2009) The zebrafish dystrophic mutant softy maintains muscle fibre viability despite basement membrane rupture and muscle detachment. Development (Cambridge, England). 136(19):3367-3376
Kizil, C., Otto, G.W., Geisler, R., Nüsslein-Volhard, C., and Antos, C.L. (2009) Simplet controls cell proliferation and gene transcription during zebrafish caudal fin regeneration. Developmental Biology. 325(2):329-340
Lopes, S.S., Yang, X., Müller, J., Carney, T.J., McAdow, A.R., Rauch, G.J., Jacoby, A.S., Hurst, L.D., Delfino-Machín, M., Haffter, P., Geisler, R., Johnson, S.L., Ward, A., and Kelsh, R.N. (2008) Leukocyte tyrosine kinase functions in pigment cell development. PLoS Genetics. 4(3):e1000026
Schonthaler, H.B., Fleisch, V.C., Biehlmaier, O., Makhankov, Y., Rinner, O., Bahadori, R., Geisler, R., Schwarz, H., Neuhauss, S.C., and Dahm, R. (2008) The zebrafish mutant lbk/vam6 resembles human multi-systemic disorders caused by aberrant trafficking of endosomal vesicles. Development (Cambridge, England). 135(2):387-399
Etard, C., Behra, M., Fischer, N., Hutcheson, D., Geisler, R., and Strähle, U. (2007) The UCS factor Steif/Unc-45b interacts with the heat shock protein Hsp90a during myofibrillogenesis. Developmental Biology. 308(1):133-143
Horsfield, J.A., Anagnostou, S.H., Hu, J.K., Cho, K.H., Geisler, R., Lieschke, G., Crosier, K.E., and Crosier, P.S. (2007) Cohesin-dependent regulation of Runx genes. Development (Cambridge, England). 134(14):2639-2649
Liu, Y., Du, L., Osato, M., Teo, E.H., Qian, F., Jin, H., Zhen, F., Xu, J., Guo, L., Huang, H., Chen, J., Geisler, R., Jiang, Y.J., Peng, J., and Wen, Z. (2007) The zebrafish udu gene encodes a novel nuclear factor and is essential for primitive erythroid cell development. Blood. 110(1):99-106
Voelker, D., Vess, C., Tillmann, M., Nagel, R., Otto, G.W., Geisler, R., Schirmer, K., and Scholz, S. (2007) Differential gene expression as a toxicant-sensitive endpoint in zebrafish embryos and larvae. Aquatic toxicology (Amsterdam, Netherlands). 81(4):355-364
Geisler, R., Rauch, G.J., Geiger-Rudolph, S., Albrecht, A., van Bebber, F., Berger, A., Busch-Nentwich, E., Dahm, R., Dekens, M.P., Dooley, C., Elli, A.F.,Gehring, I., Geiger, H., Geisler, M., Glaser, S., Holley, S., Huber, M., Kerr, A., Kirn, A., Knirsch, M., Konantz, M., Kuchler, A.M., Maderspacher, F., Neuhauss, S.C., Nicolson, T., Ober, E.A., Praeg, E., Ray, R., Rentzsch, B., Rick, J.M., Rief, E., Schauerte, H.E., Schepp, C.P., Schonberger, U., Schonthaler, H.B., Seiler, C., Sidi, S., Söllner, C., Wehner, A., Weiler, C., Nüsslein-Volhard, C. (2007) Large-scale mapping of mutations affecting zebrafish development. BMC Genomics. 8(1):11
Dahm, R., Geisler, R., and Nüsslein-Volhard, C. (2006) Zebrafish (Danio rerio) Genome and Genetics. Encyclopedia of Molecular Cell Biology and Molecular Medicine, 2nd Edition. 15:593-626
Dahm, R., and Geisler, R. (2006) Learning from Small Fry: The Zebrafish as a Genetic Model Organism for Aquaculture Fish Species. Marine biotechnology (New York, N.Y.). 8(4):329-345
Etard, C., Behra, M., Ertzer, R., Fischer, N., Jesuthasan, S., Blader, P., Geisler, R., and Strähle, U. (2005) Mutation in the delta-subunit of the nAChR suppresses the muscle defects caused by lack of Dystrophin. Developmental Dynamics : an official publication of the American Association of Anatomists. 234(4):1016-1025
Julich, D., Hwee, Lim C., Round, J., Nicolaije, C., Schroeder, J., Davies, A., Geisler, R., Lewis, J., Jiang, Y.J., Holley, S.A., Tübingen 2000 Screen Consortium. (2005) beamter/deltaC and the role of Notch ligands in the zebrafish somite segmentation, hindbrain neurogenesis and hypochord differentiation. Developmental Biology. 286(2):391-404
Schonthaler, H.B., Lampert, J.M., von Lintig, J., Schwarz, H., Geisler, R., and Neuhauss, S.C. (2005) A mutation in the silver gene leads to defects in melanosome biogenesis and alterations in the visual system in the zebrafish mutant fading vision. Developmental Biology. 284(2):421-436
Koudijs, M.J., den Broeder, M.J., Keijser, A., Wienholds, E., Houwing, S., van Rooijen, E.M., Geisler, R., and van Eeden, F.J. (2005) The Zebrafish Mutants dre, uki, and lep Encode Negative Regulators of the Hedgehog Signaling Pathway. PLoS Genetics. 1(2):e19
Cui, W.W., Low, S.E., Hirata, H., Saint-Amant, L., Geisler, R., Hume, R.I., and Kuwada, J.Y. (2005) The zebrafish shocked gene encodes a glycine transporter and is essential for the function of early neural circuits in the CNS. The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience. 25(28):6610-6620
Sonawane, M., Carpio, Y., Geisler, R., Schwarz, H., Maischein, H.M., and Nuesslein-Volhard, C. (2005) Zebrafish penner/lethal giant larvae 2 functions in hemidesmosome formation, maintenance of cellular morphology and growth regulation in the developing basal epidermis. Development (Cambridge, England). 132(14):3255-3265
Stadler, J.A., Shkumatava, A., Norton, W.H., Rau, M.J., Geisler, R., Fischer, S., and Neumann, C.J. (2005) Histone deacetylase 1 is required for cell cycle exit and differentiation in the zebrafish retina. Developmental Dynamics : an official publication of the American Association of Anatomists. 233(3):883-889
Meijer, A.H., Verbeek, F.J., Salas-Vidal, E., Corredor-Adámez, M., Bussman, J., van der Sar, A.M., Otto, G.W., Geisler, R., and Spaink, H.P. (2005) Transcriptome profiling of adult zebrafish at the late stage of chronic tuberculosis due to Mycobacterium marinum infection. Molecular immunology. 42(10):1185-1203
Jülich, D., Geisler, R., Tübingen 2000 Screen Consortium, and Holley, S.A. (2005) Integrinalpha5 and Delta/Notch Signaling Have Complementary Spatiotemporal Requirements during Zebrafish Somitogenesis. Developmental Cell. 8(4):575-586
Norton, W.H., Mangoli, M., Lele, Z., Pogoda, H.M., Diamond, B., Mercurio, S., Russell, C., Teraoka, H., Stickney, H.L., Rauch, G.J., Heisenberg, C.P., Houart, C., Schilling, T.F., Frohnhoefer, H.G., Rastegar, S., Neumann, C.J., Gardiner, R.M., Strähle, U., Geisler, R., Rees, M., Talbot, W.S., and Wilson, S.W. (2005) Monorail/Foxa2 regulates floorplate differentiation and specification of oligodendrocytes, serotonergic raphe neurones and cranial motoneurones. Development (Cambridge, England). 132(4):645-658
Lee, J.S., von der Hardt, S., Rusch, M.A., Stringer, S.E., Stickney, H.L., Talbot, W.S., Geisler, R., Nüsslein-Volhard, C., Selleck, S.B., Chien, C.B., and Roehl, H. (2004) Axon Sorting in the Optic Tract Requires HSPG Synthesis by ext2 (dackel) and extl3 (boxer). Neuron. 44(6):947-960
Söllner, C., Schwarz, H., Geisler, R., and Nicolson, T. (2004) Mutated otopetrin 1 affects the genesis of otoliths and the localization of Starmaker in zebrafish. Development genes and evolution. 214(12):582-590
Wolff, C., Roy, S., Lewis, K.E., Schauerte, H., Joerg-Rauch, G., Kirn, A., Weiler, C., Geisler, R., Haffter, P., Ingham, P.W. (2004) iguana encodes a novel zinc-finger protein with coiled-coil domains essential for Hedgehog signal transduction in the zebrafish embryo. Genes & Development. 18(13):1565-1576
Söllner, C., Rauch, G-J., Siemens, J., Geisler, R., Schuster, S.C., The Tübingen 2000 Screen Consortium, Müller, U., and Nicolson, T. (2004) Mutations in cadherin 23 affect tip links in zebrafish sensory hair cells. Nature. 428(6986):955-959
Koch, R., Rauch, G.J., Humphray, S., Geisler, T.R., and Plasterk, R. (2004) Bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) clones and the current clone map of the zebrafish genome. The Zebrafish: Genetics, Genomics and Informatics, 2nd ed., Methods Cell Biol.. 77:295-304
Knight, R.D., Nair, S., Nelson, S.S., Afshar, A., Javidan, Y., Geisler, R., Rauch, G.J., and Schilling, T.F. (2003) lockjaw encodes a zebrafish tfap2a required for early neural crest development. Development (Cambridge, England). 130(23):5755-5768
Piotrowski, T., Ahn, D.-G., Schilling, T.F., Nair, S., Ruvinsky, I., Geisler, R., Rauch, G.-J., Haffter, P., Zon, L.I., Zhou, Y., Foott, H., Dawid, I.B., and Ho, R.K. (2003) The zebrafish van gogh mutation disrupts tbx1, which is involved in the DiGeorge deletion syndrome in humans. Development (Cambridge, England). 130(20):5043-5052
Bahadori, R., Huber, M., Rinner, O., Seeliger, M.W., Geiger-Rudolph, S., Geisler, R., and Neuhauss, S.C. (2003) Retinal function and morphology in two zebrafish models of oculo-renal syndromes. The European journal of neuroscience. 18(6):1377-1386
Bink, R.J., Habuchi, H., Lele, Z., Dolk, E., Joore, J., Rauch, G.J., Geisler, R., Wilson, S.W., den Hertog, J., Kimata, K., and Zivkovic, D. (2003) Heparan sulfate 6-O-sulfotransferase is essential for muscle development in zebrafish. The Journal of biological chemistry. 278(33):31118-31127
Knaut, H., Werz, C., Geisler, R., The Tübingen 2000 Screen Consortium, Nüsslein-Volhard, C. (2003) A zebrafish homologue of the chemokine receptor Cxcr4 is a germ-cell guidance receptor. Nature. 421(6920):279-282
Lele, Z., Folchert, A., Concha, M., Rauch, G.-J., Geisler, R., Rosa, F., Wilson, S.W., Hammerschmidt, M., and Bally-Cuif, L. (2002) parachute/n-cadherin is required for morphogenesis and maintained integrity of the zebrafish neural tube. Development (Cambridge, England). 129(14):3281-3294
Grandel, H., Lun, K., Rauch, G.J., Rhinn, M., Piotrowski, T., Houart, C., Sordino, P., Küchler, A.M., Schulte-Merker, S., Geisler, R., Holder, N., Wilson, S.W., and Brand, M. (2002) Retinoic acid signalling in the zebrafish embryo is necessary during pre-segmentation stages to pattern the anterior-posterior axis of the CNS and to induce a pectoral fin bud. Development (Cambridge, England). 129(12):2851-2865
Holley, S.A., Jülich, D., Rauch, G.J., Geisler, R., and Nüsslein-Volhard, C. (2002) her1 and the notch pathway function within the oscillator mechanism that regulates zebrafish somitogenesis. Development (Cambridge, England). 129(5):1175-1183
Lopes, S.S., Rauch, G.-J., Geisler, R., Haffter, P., and Kelsh, R.N. (2002) Molecular characterization of the zebrafish pigment gene, shady. Pigment cell research. 15(9):75
Dutton, K.A., Pauliny, A., Lopes, S.S., Elworthy, S., Carney, T.J., Rauch, J., Geisler, R., Haffter, P., and Kelsh, R.N. (2001) Zebrafish colourless encodes sox10 and specifies non-ectomesenchymal neural crest fates. Development (Cambridge, England). 128(21):4113-4125
Begemann, G., Schilling, T.F., Rauch, G.J., Geisler, R., and Ingham, P.W. (2001) The zebrafish neckless mutation reveals a requirement for raldh2 in mesodermal signals that pattern the hindbrain. Development (Cambridge, England). 128(16):3081-3094
Heisenberg, C.P., Houart, C., Take-uchi, M., Rauch, G.J., Young, N., Coutinho, P., Masai, I., Caneparo, L., Concha, M.L., Geisler, R., Dale, T.C., Wilson, S.W., and Stemple, D.L. (2001) A mutation in the Gsk3-binding domain of zebrafish Masterblind/Axin1 leads to a fate transformation of telencephalon and eyes to diencephalon. Genes & Development. 15(11):1427-1434
Bauer, H., Lele, Z., Rauch, G.J., Geisler, R., and Hammerschmidt, M. (2001) The type I serine/threonine kinase receptor Alk8/Lost-a-fin is required for Bmp2b/7 signal transduction during dorsoventral patterning of the zebrafish embryo. Development (Cambridge, England). 128(6):849-858
Sültmann, H., Sato, A., Murray, B.W., Takezaki, N., Geisler, R., Rauch, G.J., and Klein, J. (2000) Conservation of Mhc class III region synteny between zebrafish and human as determined by radiation hybrid mapping. Journal of immunology (Baltimore, Md. : 1950). 165(12):6984-6993
Ernest, S., Rauch, G.J., Haffter, P., Geisler, R., Petit, C., and Nicolson, T. (2000) Mariner is defective in myosin VIIA: a zebrafish model for human hereditary deafness. Human molecular genetics. 9(14):2189-2196
Holley, S.A., Geisler, R., and Nüsslein-Volhard, C. (2000) Control of her1 expression during zebrafish somitogenesis by a Delta-dependent oscillator and an independent wave-front activity. Genes & Development. 14(13):1678-1690
Heisenberg, C.P., Tada, M., Rauch, G.J., Saude, L., Concha, M.L., Geisler, R., Stemple, D.L., Smith, J.C., and Wilson, S.W. (2000) Silberblick/Wnt11 mediates convergent extension movements during zebrafish gastrulation. Nature. 405(6782):76-81
Geisler, R., Rauch, G.J., Baier, H., van Bebber, F., Brobeta, L., Dekens, M.P., Finger, K., Fricke, C., Gates, M.A., Geiger, H., Geiger-Rudolph, S., Gilmour, D., Glaser, S., Gnugge, L., Habeck, H., Hingst, K., Holley, S., Keenan, J., Kirn, A., Knaut, H., Lashkari, D., Maderspacher, F., Martyn, U., Neuhauss, S., Neumann, C., Nicolson, T., Pelegri, F., Ray, R., Rick, J.M., Roehl, H., Roeser, T., Schauerte, H.E., Schier, A.F., Schönberger, U., Schönthaler, H.-B., Schulte-Merker, S., Seydler, C., Talbot, W.S., Weiler, C., Nüsslein-Volhard, C., and Haffter, P. (1999) A radiation hybrid map of the zebrafish genome. Nature Genetics. 23(1):86-89
Dorsky, R.I., Snyder, A., Cretekos, C.J., Grunwald, D.J., Geisler, R., Haffter, P., Moon, R.T., and Raible, D.W. (1999) Maternal and embryonic expression of zebrafish lef1. Mechanisms of Development. 86(1-2):147-150

NON-ZEBRAFISH PUBLICATIONS
Bergmann, A., Stein, D., Geisler, R., Hagenmaier, S., Schmid, B., Fernandez, N., Schnell, B. and Nüsslein-Volhard, C. (1996). A gradient of cytoplasmic Cactus degradation establishes the nuclear localization gradient of the dorsal morphogen in Drosophila. Mech. Dev. 60, 109-123.

Geisler, R., Bergmann, A., Hiromi, Y. and Nüsslein-Volhard, C. (1992). cactus, a gene involved in dorsoventral pattern formation of Drosophila, is related to the I kappa B gene family of vertebrates. Cell 71, 613-621.