The genome of a songbird

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Item Type:	Article
Title:	The genome of a songbird
Creators Name:	Warren, W.C., Clayton, D.F., Ellegren, H., Arnold, A.P., Hillier, L.W., Kuenstner, A., Searle, S., White, S., Vilella, A.J., Fairley, S., Heger, A., Kong, L., Ponting, C.P., Jarvis, E.D., Mello, C.V., Minx, P., Lovell, P., Velho, T.A., Ferris, M., Balakrishnan, C.N., Sinha, S., Blatti, C., London, S.E., Li, Y., Lin, Y.C., George, J., Sweedler, J., Southey, B., Gunaratne, P., Watson, M., Nam, K., Backstroem, N., Smeds, L., Nabholz, B., Itoh, Y., Whitney, O., Pfenning, A.R., Howard, J., Voelker, M., Skinner, B.M., Griffin, D.K., Ye, L., McLaren, W.M., Flicek, P., Quesada, V., Velasco, G., Lopez-Otin, C., Puente, X.S., Olender, T., Lancet, D., Smit, A.F., Hubley, R., Konkel, M.K., Walker, J.A., Batzer, M.A., Gu, W., Pollock, D.D., Chen, L., Cheng, Z., Eichler, E.E., Stapley, J., Slate, J., Ekblom, R., Birkhead, T., Burke, T., Burt, D., Scharff, C., Adam, I., Richard, H., Sultan, M., Soldatov, A., Lehrach, H., Edwards, S.V., Yang, S.P., Li, X., Graves, T., Fulton, L., Nelson, J., Chinwalla, A., Hou, S., Mardis, E.R. and Wilson, R.K.
Abstract:	The zebra finch is an important model organism in several fields with unique relevance to human neuroscience. Like other songbirds, the zebra finch communicates through learned vocalizations, an ability otherwise documented only in humans and a few other animals and lacking in the chicken-the only bird with a sequenced genome until now. Here we present a structural, functional and comparative analysis of the genome sequence of the zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata), which is a songbird belonging to the large avian order Passeriformes. We find that the overall structures of the genomes are similar in zebra finch and chicken, but they differ in many intrachromosomal rearrangements, lineage-specific gene family expansions, the number of long-terminal-repeat-based retrotransposons, and mechanisms of sex chromosome dosage compensation. We show that song behaviour engages gene regulatory networks in the zebra finch brain, altering the expression of long non-coding RNAs, microRNAs, transcription factors and their targets. We also show evidence for rapid molecular evolution in the songbird lineage of genes that are regulated during song experience. These results indicate an active involvement of the genome in neural processes underlying vocal communication and identify potential genetic substrates for the evolution and regulation of this behaviour.
Keywords:	3' Untranslated Regions, Auditory Perception, Brain, Molecular Evolution, Gene Duplication, Gene Regulatory Networks, Genome, MicroRNAs, Multigene Family, Retroelements, Sex Chromosomes, Terminal Repeat Sequences, Genetic Transcription, Animal Vocalization, Animals, Chickens, Finches
Source:	Nature
ISSN:	0028-0836
Publisher:	Nature Publishing Group
Volume:	464
Number:	7289
Page Range:	757-762
Date:	1 April 2010
Official Publication:	https://doi.org/10.1038/nature08819
PubMed:	View item in PubMed

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