Genome for the birds

The second avian genome to be sequenced is in, Australia's zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata). The only other bird to be sequenced is the chicken. The work appears in Nature, and is summarized here at Science Daily. Zebra finches can serve as a good model for understanding the way that humans learn to vocalize. Baby songbirds learn by hearing - initially they babble, not unlike human infants. As they listen to adult songs (almost exclusively the male parent) they learn to mimic the songs.

The researchers in the zebra finch genome study were able to show that some 800 genes in the zebra finches arsenal are involved in the act of singing. Not all of these are protein-coding genes; some two-thirds control the production of non-coding RNA which is involved in the regulation of other genes. Since learning to vocalize is a phenomenon found in some of the most complex organisms, it is believed that these non-coding RNA molecules may play a major role in that evolutionary process.