EAGER: RUI: The genomic architecture of speciation in an avian hybrid zone

这项研究试图解决不同鸟类的基因组对杂交的反应，以及是什么使它们保持独特。这两种形式的西部灌木鸦，一种在加利福尼亚州沿海发现，另一种在美国内陆发现，有不同的羽色和不同的喙形状，以适应当地的资源。这项研究将着眼于它们之间的联系领域，以解决目前进化论领域激烈辩论的两个重要问题：(1)性染色体上的遗传分歧是否在保持物种分离方面发挥了过大作用；(2)基因组分歧是否倾向于仅在基因组中的几个位置累积，或者分歧是否更均匀地分布在整个基因组中。为了做到这一点，研究人员将使用新的方法对在太浩湖附近接触区内外发现的许多个体的大基因组子集进行测序。了解物种如何保持独特，尽管它们有时会杂交和交换基因，这是进化生物学中的一个重要基本问题，关系到生物多样性是如何以及为什么产生的。从保护和管理我国现有的生物多样性财富的角度来看，这也很重要，因为在经济上重要的物种之间存在许多自然和人为中介的杂交案例。这项研究将有助于更好地理解基因组对杂交的反应，以及是什么使物种保持独特。

This study seeks to address how the genomes of different birds respond to hybridization and what keeps them distinct. The two forms of the Western Scrub-Jay, one found in coastal California and the other in the interior United States, have different plumage colors and different bill shapes that are adapted to local resources. This study will look at an area of contact between them to address two important questions that are currently intensely debated in the field of evolutionary theory: (1) whether genetic divergence on the sex chromosomes plays an outsized role in keeping species separate; and (2) whether genomic divergence tends to accumulate in just a few places in the genome, or whether divergence is more evenly spread out throughout the genome. To accomplish this, the researchers will use novel methods for sequencing large subsets of the genomes of many individuals found inside and outside a contact zone near Lake Tahoe. Understanding how species remain distinct despite the fact that they sometimes interbreed and exchange genes is an important basic question in evolutionary biology bearing on how and why biodiversity is generated. It is also important from the standpoint of protecting and managing our country's existing wealth of biodiversity, because there are many natural and human-mediated cases of hybridization between economically important species. This research will lead to a better understanding of how the genome responds to hybridization, and what keeps species distinct.