Research

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Why are there different sexes? What are the functional and evolutionary consequences of this sexual differentiation. The existence of sexual reproduction is so pervasive across complex organisms that it is easy to forget how extraordinary it is for such varying degrees of sexual differentiation to emerge from a largely shared genome, which has important short-term consequences for individuals and long-term influence on the evolution of species. Research in the lab leverages the power of the Caenorhabditis nematode model systems to relate the action of sex-specific selection on phenotypes to the evolution of their genetic architecture. Our ongoing work integrates genetic engineering, experimental evolution, genomics, population genetic theory, and evolutionary ecology to discover how sexual differentiation arises, persists, and impacts genomes.