A5066695173- Genetic diversity and population structure
- Avian ecology and behavior
- Species Distribution and Climate Change
- Bird parasitology and diseases
- Vector-borne infectious diseases
- Wildlife Ecology and Conservation
- Physiological and biochemical adaptations
- Evolution and Paleontology Studies
- Genomics and Phylogenetic Studies
- High Altitude and Hypoxia
- Viral Infections and Vectors
- Plant and animal studies
- Animal Behavior and Reproduction
- Bat Biology and Ecology Studies
- Animal Vocal Communication and Behavior
- Animal Ecology and Behavior Studies
- Study of Mite Species
- Identification and Quantification in Food
- Chromosomal and Genetic Variations
- Rangeland and Wildlife Management
- Mosquito-borne diseases and control
- Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies
- Antioxidant Activity and Oxidative Stress
- Paleontology and Evolutionary Biology
- Archaeology and Natural History
University of New Mexico
2016-2025
New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science
2023
Rocky Mountain Research Station
2016
United States Department of Agriculture
2016
Rocky Mountain Research (United States)
2016
Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin
2016
Houston Museum of Natural Science
2001-2011
Louisiana State University
2001-2011
University Medical Centre Mannheim
2010
Heidelberg University
2010
Deep avian evolutionary relationships have been difficult to resolve as a result of putative explosive radiation. Our study examined ∼32 kilobases aligned nuclear DNA sequences from 19 independent loci for 169 species, representing all major extant groups, and recovered robust phylogeny genome-wide signal supported by multiple analytical methods. We documented well-supported, previously unrecognized interordinal (such sister relationship between passerines parrots) corroborated contentious...
Phylogenomics, the use of large-scale data matrices in phylogenetic analyses, has been viewed as ultimate solution to problem resolving difficult nodes tree life. However, it become clear that analyses these large genomic sets can also result conflicting estimates phylogeny. Here, we early divergences Neoaves, largest clade extant birds, a "model system" understand basis for incongruence among phylogenomic trees. We were motivated by observation trees from two recent avian studies exhibit...
Expect the unexpected In convergent evolution, similar environmental conditions produce sets of adaptations. Does convergence exist in molecular underpinnings such morphological changes? Natarajan et al. looked across more than 50 species birds that have adapted to different elevations identify patterns similarity hemoglobin-oxygen binding affinity (see Perspective by Bridgham). Increases occurred alpine species, but changes underlying hemoglobin were variable. Thus, even cases where...
Significance Predictable evolutionary trends illuminate mechanisms that affect the diversity of traits and species on tree life. We show when birds colonize islands, they undergo predictable changes in body shape. Small-island bird populations evolve smaller flight muscles longer legs. These shifts investment from wings to legs, although often subtle, are qualitatively similar have occurred flightless lineages. Islands with fewer predator were associated more dramatic toward flightlessness,...
Hummingbirds are an important model system in avian biology, but to date the group has been subject of remarkably few phylogenetic investigations. Here we present partitioned Bayesian and maximum likelihood analyses for 151 approximately 330 species hummingbirds 12 outgroup taxa based on two protein-coding mitochondrial genes (ND2 ND4), flanking tRNAs, nuclear introns (AK1 BFib). We analyzed these data under several partitioning strategies ranging between unpartitioned a nine partitions. In...
Ratites (ostriches, emus, rheas, cassowaries, and kiwis) are large, flightless birds that have long fascinated biologists. Their current distribution on isolated southern land masses is believed to reflect the breakup of paleocontinent Gondwana. The prevailing view ratites monophyletic, with flighted tinamous as their sister group, suggesting a single loss flight in common ancestry ratites. However, phylogenetic analyses 20 unlinked nuclear genes reveal genome-wide signal unequivocally...
Animals that sustain high levels of aerobic activity under hypoxic conditions (e.g., birds fly at altitude) face the physiological challenge jointly optimizing blood-O2 affinity for O2 loading in pulmonary circulation and unloading systemic circulation. At altitude, this is especially acute small endotherms like hummingbirds have exceedingly mass-specific metabolic rates. Here we report an experimental analysis hemoglobin (Hb) function South American revealed a positive correlation between...
Theoretical and empirical studies of life history aim to account for resource allocation the different components fitness: survival, growth, reproduction. The pioneering evolutionary ecologist David Lack [(1968) Ecological Adaptations Breeding in Birds (Methuen Co., London)] suggested that reproductive output birds reflects adaptation environmental factors such as availability food risk predation, but subsequent have not always supported Lack’s interpretation. Here using a dataset 980 bird...
Insertion/deletion (indel) mutations, which are represented by gaps in multiple sequence alignments, have been used to examine phylogenetic hypotheses for some time. However, most analyses combine gap data with the nucleotide sequences they embedded, probably because datasets include few characters. Here, we report of 12,030 characters from an alignment avian nuclear genes using maximum parsimony (MP) and a simple likelihood (ML) framework. Both trees were similar, exhibited almost all...
The tendency for flying organisms to possess small genomes has been interpreted as evidence of natural selection acting on the physical size genome. Nonetheless, flight–genome link and its mechanistic basis have yet be well established by comparative studies within a volant clade. Is there particular functional aspect flight such brisk metabolism, lift production or maneuverability that impinges genome? We measured genome sizes, wing dimensions heart, muscle body masses from phylogenetically...
Significance Within a given gene, there may be many possible mutations that are capable of producing particular change in phenotype. However, if some sites have especially high rates mutation to function-altering alleles, then such make disproportionate contributions phenotypic evolution. We report the discovery point at highly mutable site β-globin gene Andean house wrens has produced physiologically important oxygenation properties hemoglobin (Hb). The mutant allele confers an increased...
The ecoevolutionary drivers of species niche expansion or contraction are critical for biodiversity but challenging to infer. Niche may be promoted by local adaptation constrained physiological performance trade-offs. For birds, evolutionary shifts in migratory behavior permit the broadening climatic into varied, seasonal environments. Broader niches can short-lived if diversifying selection and geography promote speciation subdivision across gradients. To illuminate breadth dynamics, we ask...
Abstract Parasite host switches may trigger disease emergence, but prehistoric ranges are often unknowable. Lymphatic filariasis and loiasis major human diseases caused by the insect-borne filarial nematodes Brugia , Wuchereria Loa . Here we show that genomes of these seven tropical bird lineages exclusively share a novel retrotransposon, AviRTE, resulting from horizontal transfer (HT). AviRTE subfamilies exhibit 83–99% nucleotide identity between genomes, their phylogenetic distribution,...
Recent research has revealed well over 1000 mtDNA lineages of avian haemosporidian parasites, but the extent to which this diversity is caused by host–parasite coevolutionary history or environmental heterogeneity unclear. We surveyed and host in a geographically structured, ecological generalist species, house wren Troglodytes aedon , across complex landscape Peruvian Andes. detected deep genetic structure within its range, represented seven clades that were between 3.4–5.7% divergent. From...
Abstract Metatranscriptomics is a powerful method for studying the composition and function of complex microbial communities. The application metatranscriptomics to multispecies parasite infections particular interest, as research on evolution diversification has been hampered by technical challenges genome‐scale DNA sequencing. In particular, blood parasites vertebrates are abundant diverse although they often occur at low infection intensities exist infections, rendering isolation genomic...
Abstract We explored the evolutionary radiation in House Wren complex (Troglodytes aedon and allies), New World’s most widely distributed passerine species. The has been source of ongoing taxonomic debate. To evaluate phenotypic variation complex, we collected 81,182 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) from restriction site associated loci (RADseq) mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) samples representing geographic diversity complex. Both datasets reveal deep phylogeographic structuring, with...
More than tools for managing physical and digital objects, museum collection management systems (CMS) serve as platforms structuring, integrating, making accessible the rich data embodied by natural history collections. Here we describe Arctos, a scalable community solution publishing global biological, geological, cultural collections research education. Specific goals are to: (1) Describe core features implementation of Arctos broad audience with respect to biodiversity informatics...
In air-breathing vertebrates, the physiologically optimal blood-O2 affinity is jointly determined by prevailing partial pressure of atmospheric O2, efficacy pulmonary O2 transfer, and internal metabolic demands. Consequently, genetic variation in oxygenation properties hemoglobin (Hb) may be subject to spatially varying selection species with broad elevational distributions. Here we report results a combined functional evolutionary analysis Hb polymorphism rufous-collared sparrow...
If the fitness effects of amino acid mutations are conditional on genetic background, then can have different depending sequential order in which they occur during evolutionary transitions protein function. A key question concerns fraction possible mutational pathways connecting alternative functional states that involve transient reductions fitness. Here we examine multiple substitutions contributed to an transition oxygenation properties avian hemoglobin (Hb). The set causative changes...
Color vision in birds is mediated by four types of cone photoreceptors whose maximal sensitivities (λmax) are evenly spaced across the light spectrum. In course avian evolution, λmax most shortwave-sensitive cone, SWS1, has switched between violet (λmax > 400 nm) and ultraviolet < 380 multiple times. This shift SWS1 opsin accompanied a corresponding short-wavelength spectrally adjacent SWS2 cone. Here, we show that spectral tuning modulating ratio two apocarotenoids, galloxanthin...