A recurring observation in the study of reproductive proteins is their rapid, adaptive evolution. This phenomenon occurs in organisms diverse as diatoms and humans. The long-term goal of my research is to understand the diversity of reproductive proteins and the functional consequences of their divergence, which could involve problems in fertility and speciation due to a mismatch of sperm-egg recognition molecules. This would be analogous to matches in class I major-histocompatibility-complex molecules necessary for successful skin grafts. Therefore, understanding the evolutionary dynamics of reproductive proteins may be directly relevant to problems in fertility. Our lab works on a variety of organisms, including Drosophila, abalone (Haliotis), and mammals. A common theme throughout my research is identifying genes subjected to positive selection (adaptive evolution), indicating potentially functionally important candidate genes. Once identified using comparative genomic approaches, these proteins are targets for further functional characterization.