Insights into Convergent Evolution From Studying Amino Acid Patterns in Independent Lineages of Birds.

ABSTRACT: Vocal learning, the ability to imitate sounds, is a complex convergent trait crucial for spoken language and observed in a few independent lineages of mammals and birds. While convergences in gene expression have been found in vocal learning brain regions, amino acid convergences remain unclear. Here, we investigated whether avian vocal learning clades have amino acid convergences linked to their specialized trait. We developed a tool, Convergent Variant Finder, and applied it to an alignment of 48 species representing nearly all bird orders to identify convergent single amino acid variants among vocal learners and over 8,000 other polyphyletic species combinations. We discovered that the number of convergent variants was associated with the product of branch lengths of the most recent com

SUBMITTER: Lee C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12703197 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature