OVERVIEW
The Haag laboratory is based in the Department of Biology at the University of Maryland, College Park (UMD). We study the evolution of animal sexuality, focusing on cases where self-fertile hermaphroditism has evolved from male-female ancestors. These shifts to one-parent reproduction present fascinating developmental puzzles, but also have tremendous organismal significance. Using nematodes and mangrove killifish, we explore the developmental and genetic novelties required to allow a new strategy to emerge, and also the various consequences of adopting it.
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Haag, Fitch, & Delattre (2018)
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LAB NEWS
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New paper links sperm competition & speciation
January 29, 2025 
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Earlier work from the lab reported that sperm produced by males from outcrossing nematodes often go rogue when placed into a self-fertile hermaphrodite, sterilizing and killing her. More recently, we described MSS, a small sperm competition protein found in outcrossers, but lost in hermaphroditic species. This new study, led by Justin and Asan, connects the two phenomena: MSS enhances sperm function by conferring mild invasivity.
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Eric's book released
November 20, 2024 
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After nearly a decade of effort, Eric is pleased to announce the publication of The Other Big Bang: The Story of Sex and Its Human Legacy, by Columbia University Press. If you are looking for an approachable overview of the evolution of sex and sexes, or are curious about how humans got to be the way we are, you may find it helpful. Learn more here. |
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Welcome, Greg!
August, 2024 
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We are pleased to welcome Dr. Greg Reilly to the lab as a postdoctoral researcher. Greg did his doctoral work in the Portman lab at the University of Rochester, where he studied sex differences in C. elegans behavior. In the Haag lab, Greg will lead a new project on intraspecific variation of sexual behavior. |
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Summer researchers here!
July 19, 2024 
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Thanks to NSF support, the lab has been able to welcome four new researchers this summer:
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We've moved. ~June 1, 2024
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After 22 years of basement dwelling, the Haag and Bely labs have moved on up. Our main molecular biology, microscopy, and worm wrangling space is in 2115-2119 Biosciences Research Building, while media production and fish-related work happens down the hall in Biology-Psychology 2277. Thanks to all who helped us make the move by receiving surplus equipment and helping us furnish the new space. L-R: Eric, Kevin, James Nowotny, Joseph Mack, Asan |
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GSA's TAGC March 12, 2024
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The Haag Lab was well represented at The Allied Genetics Conference (TAGC), a quadrennial event organized by the Genetics Society of America. This time it was held at the nearby National Harbor, MD. Asan and Kevin presented posters. Eric co-chaired a fascinating session on Sex Differences in Biology and Disease and helped with the inaugural TAGC Comedy Show. Participants in the session are shown at right (Front row, L-R, are Gavin Rice, Jeffrey Groh, Ling Sheng Loh, Miranda Wilson, Mursalin Khan. co-Chair Rita Graze, & Jack Rayner. Back row, L-R, are Eric Haag, Chien-Po Liao, Catherine Schretter, & Matthew Treaster) |
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First K. marmoratus paper out! August 9, 2023
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We are happy to share our first publication on the fascinating mangrove killifish, Kryptolebias marmoratus. In collaboration with the lab of Matthew Harris (Harvard Medical School) and Kellee Siegfried (UMass-Boston), we report the results of a forward screen for useful mutants, and the first successful use of CRISPR/Cas9 technology for targeted gene knockout. Check it out! Open-Access PDF HERE |
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New NSF Award August 1, 2023
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How did C. elegans evolve self-fertility? A new award from the National Science Foundation will support our ongoing efforts to answer this question. The work focuses on a gene called fog-2, which is essential for hermaphrodites to be able to produce sperm, and is only found in C. elegans. The support will allow us test hypotheses of how FOG-2 regulates germline sex, and also to reconstruct the evolutionary steps that gave it this capacity. We are grateful to NSF's Division of Integrative and Organismal Systems (IOS) for their support. |
Congratulations to...
- Asan Turdiev and Dr. Justin Van Goor, who both gave talks at the EvoWorm 2024 conference in Vienna.
- Dr. Justin Van Goor, an NSF- and USDA-supported postdoctoral fellow in the lab from 2019 -2023, who begins an appointment as a Preparing Future Faculty Postdoctoral Fellow in the University of Missouri, Columbia's Department of Biological Sciences in September, 2023. This transitional position allows him to launch an independent research program, with startup funds and lab space. He will use it to further his work on fig-associated nematodes. Go, Justin!
- Jax Ficklin, who successfully defended his doctoral dissertation, entitled "Sex and the Evolution of a Double Hermaphrodite", on July 13, 2023. Jax has been a student in the Biological Sciences Graduate Program's concentration area in Behavior, Evolution, Ecology, & Systematics.
- Kevin Hackbarth and Asan Turdiev, who presented their research at the Molecular Helminthology and International C. elegans conferences over the summer of 2023.
- Undergraduates Jillian Manning and Nicole Rainford, who spent summer, 2023 deepening their training at the NIH's intramural research campus in Bethesda, MD.
- Eric, who presented a keynote lecture at the 4th International Pristionchus Meeting in Tübingen, Germany on September 22, 2023.