Shauna’s first PhD chapter has been published in Genome Biology and Evolution! Link here. Co-authors include Peri and Mike, along with collaborators Qi Fang and Philip Johnson.

Leveraging data from 342 avian genomes, they examined the evolution of avian growth hormone (GH) genes. GH was duplicated in the passerine lineage, and both passerine GH genes maintain functional features and are expressed in different tissues. Compared to the non-passerine single-copy GH, passerine GHs show evidence of positive selection, and Shauna + coauthors identified mutations likely to affect function. As passerine GH is the most widely-found gene originating in the common ancestor of passerines, studying its evolution clarifies potentially adaptive genetic features shared by the ultra-diverse passerine birds.