Toni Gossmann: The great tit genome and its implications for genome evolution
- Date: Mar 3, 2016
- Time: 03:00 PM - 04:00 PM (Local Time Germany)
- Speaker: Toni Gossmann from the University of Sheffield
- For more information, please check http://toni-gossmann.staff.shef.ac.uk/
- Location: MPI Plön
- Room: Lecture hall
- Host: Miriam Liedvogel
AbstractFor over 50 years, the great tit (Parus major) has been a
model species for research in evolutionary, ecological and
behavioural research - but genomic ressources have been
lacking. To close this gap, a high quality great tit
reference genome has been assembled to chromosomal level and
will play an instrumental role in furthering the integration
of ecological, evolutionary, behavioural and genomic
approaches in this model species. Here, I will present the
results of the great tit genome project and focus in
particular on two aspects:
(1) We investigate whether a special feature of avian
genomes, the highly variable recombinational landscape,
modulates the efficacy of natural selection through the
effects of Hill-Robertson interference.
(2) We provide further insights into the molecular
mechanisms behind important traits - in particular, learning
and cognition - using whole-genome re-sequences of another
29 individuals from across Europe and the great tit
methylome.