Comparative genomics reveals insights into avian genome evolution and adaptation

Abstract

Birds are the most species-rich class of tetrapod vertebrates and have wide relevance across many research fields. We explored bird macroevolution using full genomes from 48 avian species representing all major extant clades. The avian genome is principally characterized by its constrained size, which predominantly arose because of lineage-specific erosion of repetitive elements, large segmental deletions, and gene loss. Avian genomes furthermore show a remarkably high degree of evolutionary stasis at the levels of nucleotide sequence, gene synteny, and chromosomal structure. Despite this pattern of conservation, we detected many non-neutral evolutionary changes in protein-coding genes and noncoding regions. These analyses reveal that pan-avian genomic diversity covaries with adaptations to different lifestyles and convergent evolution of traits.

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Affiliated Institutions

• University of California, Berkeley US
• Harvard University US
• Institute of Zoology CN
• Swedish Species Information Centre SE
• Duke University Hospital US
• Louisiana State University US
• Natural History Museum Aarhus DK
• Roslin Institute GB
• National University of Singapore SG
• Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute US
• National Museum of Natural History US
• Integra (United States) US
• Copenhagen Zoo DK
• Howard Hughes Medical Institute US
• Austral University of Chile CL
• University of Copenhagen DK
• Kunming Institute of Zoology CN
• University of Edinburgh GB
• Wuhan University CN
• Royal Veterinary College GB
• Chinese Academy of Sciences CN
• Nova Southeastern University US
• New Mexico State University US
• University of Florida US
• Imperial College London GB
• Uppsala University SE
• International Wildlife Consultants (United Kingdom) GB
• Montclair State University US
• China National GeneBank CN
• Aberystwyth University GB
• The University of Sydney AU
• Cardiff University GB
• San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research US
• South China University of Technology CN
• Seoul National University KR
• Tulane University US
• Mississippi State University US
• BGI Group (China) CN
• University of Nebraska–Lincoln US
• Smithsonian Institution US
• University of London GB
• University of Kent GB
• University of California, Riverside US
• Universidade do Porto PT
• University of California, Santa Cruz US
• Duke Medical Center US
• Houston Museum of Natural Science US
• National Zoological Park US
• Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences SE
• China Agricultural University CN
• Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences GB
• St Petersburg University RU
• University of Chinese Academy of Sciences CN
• Xi'an Jiaotong University CN
• University of South Carolina US
• University of California, San Francisco US
• Washington University in St. Louis US

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