Noncoding regions underpin avian bill shape diversification at macroevolutionary scales.

ABSTRACT: Recent progress has been made in identifying genomic regions implicated in trait evolution on a microevolutionary scale in many species, but whether these are relevant over macroevolutionary time remains unclear. Here, we directly address this fundamental question using bird beak shape, a key evolutionary innovation linked to patterns of resource use, divergence, and speciation, as a model trait. We integrate class-wide geometric-morphometric analyses with evolutionary sequence analyses of 10,322 protein-coding genes as well as 229,001 genomic regions spanning 72 species. We identify 1434 protein-coding genes and 39,806 noncoding regions for which molecular rates were significantly related to rates of bill shape evolution. We show that homologs of the identified protein-coding genes as wel

SUBMITTER: Yusuf L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7197477 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature