Student Mentee(s): Seren Castellano, Arianna Escandon, Precious Pate, Gabrieline Dennis

Why is sexual reproduction so common? Sexual females produce both sons and daughters, while asexual females make only daughters. Because only females produce offspring, this "cost of males" predicts that sex should be rare because asexual females will leave many more descendants than will sexual females. In reality, however, sex predominates. Despite years of study, why sex is so common remains unclear, and is considered one of the most important unanswered questions in evolutionary biology.

A clear understanding of the advantages of sex, which is distinguished from asexuality by the production of genetically variable offspring, is also of direct relevance to understanding the value of preserving genetic diversity within and among populations, species, and ecological communities. More broadly, our research program is relevant to scientists who use our snail study system as a model for ecotoxicology and host-parasite coevolution as well as those studying the causes and consequences of biological invasions. Our lab group is also very committed to mentoring and community engagement, and we are involved in a variety of such efforts, from regular collaborations with 10th grade Biology students at a local high school to the development and testing of a genomics module for a national high school computer science curriculum to our central role in organizing the annual Iowa City Darwin Day celebrations.