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VISUALIZING THE AVIAN BIG BANG: SYNTENY RESOLVES THE NEOAVIAN CONFLICT

Abstract

The avian clade Neoaves underwent a rapid evolution near the Cretaceous-Palaeogene (K-Pg) mass extinction event approximately 66 Mya. This rapid diversification has introduced a problem with sorting evolutionary phylogenetic trees. Over the past 10-15 years multiple researchers have attempted to construct avian phylogenetic trees, often resulting in conflicting results. Conflicts arose due to differing data types used, methodologies employed, and taxon sampling. We propose a whole genome synteny comparison will help resolve conflicting clades as conserved chromosome level orthologous parts give a greater clue to distinguish between clades because chromosomal rearrangements, inversions and translocations, are not as easily altered via evolution as gene sequences. Therefore, a larger persistent chromosomal rearrangment predicts a closer evolutionary relationship. Here, our research focuses on 3 specific clades: Columbimorphae, Strisores, and Otidimorphae. For each class, we selected a representative species; Common Cuckoos (Cuculus canorus), Anna’s Hummingbirds (Calypte anna), and Rock Pigeons (Columba livia), respectively. We used a whole genome synteny analysis to determine evolutionary proximity to one another and resolve the conflicting trees. NCBI’s whole genome assemblies for the three species were used, and visualization tools (ntSynt-Viz & NCBI’s Comparative Genome Viewer) were employed to visualize the synteny. Our results suggest that Cuculiformes (Cuckoos) and Columbiformes (Pigeons) are more closely realted to each other, within the Columbaves Clade, whereas the Strisores (Hummingbirds) are more distantly related.

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