Maurine Neiman

B.A., Biology, Carleton College 1999; Ph.D., Evolutionary Biology, Indiana University 2004. Advisor: Curt Lively.

I am fascinated by biological diversity and by the simultaneous operation of adaptive and non-adaptive evolutionary processes within organisms, populations, and lineages. Sex, with all its complexities, encompasses all of these interests. In particular, I am interested in using comparisons of sexual and asexual individuals, lineages, and genomes to better understand the advantages and disadvantages of sexuality, evolutionary constraints that limit asexual success, and why sex persists in some natural populations but not others.

Dr. Joe Jalinsky

B.S, Biology, & B.G.S., Film and Media Studies, University of Kansas 2011; M.S., Entomology, Kansas State University 2014; Ph.D., University of Iowa 2022 (co-advised by Maurine Neiman & John Logsdon). Currently an NIH T32 Postdoctoral Fellow on a parasitology-focused training grant (P.I. Dr. Mary Wilson), 2023-present.

As a Ph.D. student in the Neiman and Logsdon labs, my focus was on transitions between reproductive modes and the genomic, morphological, and behavioral consequences of these transitions in Potamopyrgus antipodarum. These traits are predicted to evolve differently in organisms that differ in reproductive mode (e.g., sexual vs asexual reproduction). I showed that sperm-related traits are degenerating in asexual males in the Journal of Evolutionary Biology, making unlikely that the the rare males produced by asexual female P. antipodarum are a source of gene flow. I also created an annotated inventory of sperm and meiosis genes in our snails as well as in lichenized fungi and assessed patterns of molecular evolution between sexual and asexual lineages; publications forthcoming. As an NIH T32 postdoctoral fellow, I am identifying and characterizing molecular evolution of genes involved in mediating susceptibility vs. resistance to trematode parasites in Biomphalaria snails.

Briante Najev

B.S., Wildlife Ecology, University of Maine 2016; M.S., Biology, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley 2019; Ph.D. student, 2019-present.

As a master's student, I studied the snail communities of the Lower Rio Grande Valley and the effects of human disturbance and urbanization on these communities. My research also compared snail and vegetative community compositions in the last remaining Tamaulipan Thornforest in the Lower Rio Grande Valley of the USA. Now, as a Ph.D. student, I am studying the ecology and evolutionary biology of Potamopyrgus antipodarum, with a particular focus on the potential for nutrient limitation to drive natural variation in the distribution and frequency of sexual vs. asexual individuals. I am also interested in the factors that drive its worldwide invasion, recently showing that sensitivity (or lack thereof) to population density could play a role. 

Clare Mulcahy

B.S. Biology, Cell and Molecular Concentration, Saint Vincent College 2023; Ph.D. student, 2023-present.

I'm interested in mating behavior in Potamopyrgus antipodarum. Since P. antipodarum vary widely in sex ratios in their native populations, I'm investigating how different sex ratios might affect their mating behavior. 

Srivarshini (Varshu) Saravanakumar

B.Sc., Biology- Emphasis Molecular Genetics, University of Wisconsin-Platteville 2021; Ph.D. Student, 2023-present. 

I am interested in quantifying mutation rate and spectra and mutation accumulation in asexual lineages of P. antipodarum, addressing important evolutionary hypotheses regarding the generation and consequences of genetic variation. I am also exploring the potential of evolutionary simulation of mutation accumulation and genomic structural changes to model the consequences as sexual snail lineages transition to asexuality.