Andrea Case, PhD, Associate Professor of Evolutionary Biology at Kent State University

Natural selection is, by definition, a process that acts to increase individual fitness in populations of organisms. The common occurrence of traits that reduce fitness presents an interesting evolutionary puzzle. This talk will explore how one costly trait in plants—male sterility—can be evolutionarily maintained in natural populations despite reducing individual fitness. Case will present her ongoing research on male sterility showing that the genes causing male sterility evolve selfishly, and that genes that can suppress male sterility are costly.