Related Experiment Video
Updated: Apr 16, 2026
09:23
Dissection and Downstream Analysis of Zebra Finch Embryos at Early Stages of Development
Published on: June 21, 2014
11.4K
Phylogenomic analyses data of the avian phylogenomics project
Erich D Jarvis1, Siavash Mirarab2, Andre J Aberer3
1Department of Neurobiology, Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710 USA.
Gigascience
|March 6, 2015
Summary
This study presents a large-scale avian phylogenomic analysis, constructing a reliable bird species tree using diverse genomic data. The findings advance our understanding of avian evolutionary relationships and genome evolution.
Area of Science:
- Genomics
- Systematic Biology
- Evolutionary Biology
Background:
- Determining avian evolutionary relationships is a major challenge in systematic biology.
- Previous efforts were limited by data availability and analytical methods.
Purpose of the Study:
- To construct a robust genome-scale phylogenetic tree for birds.
- To perform comparative genomic analyses across avian species.
Main Methods:
- Assembled and analyzed genomes from 48 avian species.
- Generated well-annotated datasets based on genome synteny.
- Utilized diverse data sets including genes, indels, and transposable elements.
- Employed concatenation-based (ExaML) and coalescence-based (MP-EST*) algorithms for phylogenetic inference.
Main Results:
- Presented sequence alignment and tree files for phylogenomic analyses.
- The total evidence nucleotide tree (TENT) dataset yielded the most reliable species tree.
- Identified genome evolution properties, such as convergence, from coding sequence analyses.
Conclusions:
- The Avian Phylogenomics Project is the largest vertebrate phylogenomics initiative to date.
- The generated data will accelerate research in avian phylogenomics and related fields.
Related Concept Videos
02:54Evolutionary Relationships through Genome Comparisons
7.3K
Genome comparison is one of the excellent ways to interpret the evolutionary relationships between organisms. The basic principle of genome comparison is that if two species share a common feature, it is likely encoded by the DNA sequence conserved between both species. The advent of genome sequencing technologies in the late 20th century enabled scientists to understand the concept of conservation of domains between species and helped them to deduce evolutionary relationships across diverse...
7.3K
01:23Phylogeny
64.8K
Phylogeny is concerned with the evolutionary diversification of organisms or groups of organisms. A group of organisms with a name is called a taxon (singular). Taxa (plural) can span different levels of the evolutionary hierarchy. For instance, the group containing all birds is a taxon (comprising the class Aves), and the group of all species of daisies (the genus Bellis) is a taxon. Phylogenies can likewise include just one genus (i.e., depict species relationships) or span an entire kingdom.
64.8K
01:28Microbial Phylogeny
76
Understanding the evolutionary relationships among microorganisms is fundamental to microbial ecology and taxonomy. Phylogenetic trees are essential tools for inferring these relationships, relying primarily on comparative analyses of molecular sequences such as DNA, RNA, or proteins. In microbial studies, these trees typically depict the evolutionary paths of diverse bacterial and archaeal species by mapping genetic differences accumulated over time.Phylogenetic trees are composed of tips,...
76
03:21Phylogenetic Trees
52.3K
Phylogenetic trees come in many forms. It matters in which sequence the organisms are arranged from the bottom to the top of the tree, but the branches can rotate at their nodes without altering the information. The lines connecting individual nodes can be straight, angled, or even curved.
52.3K
03:21Phylogenetic Trees
6.8K
6.8K
01:22Phylogenetic Species Concept in Microbiology
153
The phylogenetic species concept (PSC) is a framework used to delineate species based on evolutionary relationships, emphasizing shared ancestry and diagnosable genetic traits. Unlike morphological or biological species concepts, the PSC is particularly advantageous for microbial taxonomy, where traditional reproductive or phenotypic criteria often fall short due to the prevalence of asexual reproduction, minimal morphological differentiation, and widespread horizontal gene transfer among...
153