Martin Völker

TL;DR: This work shows 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 and shows evidence for rapid molecular evolution in the songbird lineage of genes that are regulated during song experience.

TL;DR: A highly significant association of both chromosomal rearrangements and CNVs with elevated recombination rates is found, providing support for the notion of recombination-based processes playing a major role in avian genome evolution.

TL;DR: The first insight into the conservation of microchromosomes, the first comparative cytogenetic map of any bird and the first appraisal of CNVs between birds is provided suggest that avian genomes have remained relatively stable during evolution compared to mammalian equivalents.

TL;DR: The analyses of the zebra finch MHC suggest a complex history involving chromosomal fission, gene duplication and translocation in the history of the MHC in birds, and highlight striking differences in MHC structure and organization among avian lineages.

TL;DR: The data on CNVs between chicken and duck extends previous analyses in chicken and turkey and supports the hypotheses that avian genomes contain fewer CNVs than mammalian genomes and that genomes of evolutionarily distant species share regions of copy number variation ("CNV hotspots").