Scott Edmunds - January 7, 2021
Ducks, Emu’s, Platypus and Echidna’s, oh my! New work on the duck and other egg-laying animal genomes helps crack sex chromosomes evolution and diversity in a number of bird and monotreme species.
Hans Zauner - September 4, 2019
Today in Gigascience we published an avian genome assembly with a twist. An Australian team at Monash University discovered unusual, so-called neo-sex chromosomes in the genome of the Eastern Yellow Robin. Being big fans of bird genomes (see our support of the Avian Phylogenomic and B10K projects) it is great to see another one take […]
Hans Zauner - January 30, 2019
New genomic data from five birds-of-paradise reveal genes that are shaped by selection and help explain the origin of their spectacular plumage. Birds-of-paradise, with their elaborate and colorful feathers and their complex courtship displays, are a school-book example of sexual selection. However, little is known about the genetic variants that distinguish the lavishly colored birds-of-paradise […]
Scott Edmunds - November 30, 2018
While they say one swallow doesn’t make a spring, one swallow genome makes a welcome contribution to the avian genome club. Taking advantage of the latest genomic and optical mapping technologies, a team of Scientists from the University of Milan, California State Polytechnic University and the University of Pavia, have carried out the high quality […]
Scott Edmunds - June 4, 2015
Announcing this week the B10K project, Guojie Zhang explains how they plan to sequence all the 10,000 bird genomes.
Nicole Nogoy - February 10, 2015
Our New Zealand based Commissioning Editor, Nicole Nogoy, was asked by Creative Commons Aotearoa (New Zealand) to write a guest blog on open licensing from a Kiwi perspective. Being big users and fans of their licenses we were happy to oblige. Now posted on their website, thanks to the wonder of open CC-BY licensing, we […]
Scott Edmunds - December 12, 2014
In the long history of humankind (and animal kind too) those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed. —Attributed to Charles Darwin In 1839 Charles Darwin published his famous account of the 5-year second voyage of the HMS Beagle, describing the flora and fauna he encountered surveying South America and circumnavigating the […]