Sexual Selection and the Origin of Sexes
I am interested in sexual selection and how it affects evolution and rates of adaptation.
I am also pursuing a new theory to explain the origin of mating types, which proposes that some environments which typically would encourage speciation, may also, under some circumstances, result in mating types and eventually sexes. In essence, the theory is that an environment with two niches will usually generate two species. But it is possible that the same environment could promote evolution within a single species so that there are two distinct genomes in the population (each capable of utilizing a different niche) and these two genomes mate exclusively with each other (via sexual selection). This could result in sufficient time for other sexual changes to evolve. I am currently designing experiments to test this idea.
I am also pursuing a new theory to explain the origin of mating types, which proposes that some environments which typically would encourage speciation, may also, under some circumstances, result in mating types and eventually sexes. In essence, the theory is that an environment with two niches will usually generate two species. But it is possible that the same environment could promote evolution within a single species so that there are two distinct genomes in the population (each capable of utilizing a different niche) and these two genomes mate exclusively with each other (via sexual selection). This could result in sufficient time for other sexual changes to evolve. I am currently designing experiments to test this idea.
