Seminars

Sex and death are not merely biological inevitabilities but intertwined evolutionary inventions.
In Caenorhabditis elegans, we experimentally intensified sexual conflict through long-term evolution under sustained male enrichment. Across replicate populations, adaptation repeatedly targeted prezygotic mechanisms that reduce the cost of outcrossing;
hermaphrodites evolved behavioral and physiological resistance to mating, biasing reproduction toward selfing. These results reveal that reproductive systems themselves evolve as arenas of negotiation between individual and lineage interests, where sex can be both a vehicle of adaptation and a source of degeneration. In contrast, the moon jellyfish Aurelia offers a window into how reproduction, aging, and regeneration are developmentally coupled. Its life cycle alternates between the immortal, clonally proliferating polyp and the sexually reproductive, senescent medusa. By integrating single-cell atlases and transcriptomic trajectories across these stages, we are dissecting how reproductive reprogramming can reverse or accelerate organismal aging. Together, these studies suggest that the boundary between sex and death is neither fixed nor universal, but rather an evolving trade-off between regeneration, reproduction, and longevity—a negotiation inherent in the developmental logic of life itself.