diff --git a/unittests/test_transformers.py b/unittests/test_transformers.py
index 0571dbd31de9b37230f0ee1d93c22c6df47c87e7..301aab50b5d4d1ebb86cd2d4bf86dcfdb6eea6a9 100644
--- a/unittests/test_transformers.py
+++ b/unittests/test_transformers.py
@@ -30,17 +30,14 @@ See: https://gitlab.indiscale.com/caosdb/src/caosdb-crawler/-/issues/107
 
 import importlib
 from pathlib import Path
-from unittest.mock import MagicMock, Mock, patch
+from unittest.mock import Mock
 
-import linkahead as db
 import pytest
-import yaml
-from pytest import raises
-
 from caoscrawler.converters import Converter, ListElementConverter
 from caoscrawler.scanner import create_transformer_registry, scan_directory
 from caoscrawler.stores import GeneralStore
-from caoscrawler.transformer_functions import replace, split
+from caoscrawler.transformer_functions import replace
+from pytest import raises
 
 UNITTESTDIR = Path(__file__).parent
 
@@ -163,3 +160,23 @@ def test_empty_functions_list(converter_registry):
 
     conv.apply_transformers(values, transformer_functions)
     assert values['b'] == "16_45"
+
+
+def test_replace_variables():
+    vals = GeneralStore()
+    vals["test"] = "with"
+    vals["a"] = "str_without_replacement"
+    conv = Mock()
+    conv.definition = {}
+    conv.definition["transform"] = {
+        "test": {
+            "in": "$a",
+            "out": "$a",
+            "functions": [
+                {"replace": {
+                    "remove": "without",
+                    "insert": "$test"
+                }}
+            ]}}
+    Converter.apply_transformers(conv, vals, {"replace": replace})
+    assert vals["a"] == "str_with_replacement"