• HOME
  • NEWS
    • BIOENGINEERING
    • SCIENCE NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • FORUM
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • CONTACT US
Thursday, March 4, 2021
BIOENGINEER.ORG
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME
  • NEWS
    • BIOENGINEERING
    • SCIENCE NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • FORUM
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • CONTACT US
  • HOME
  • NEWS
    • BIOENGINEERING
    • SCIENCE NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • FORUM
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • CONTACT US
No Result
View All Result
Bioengineer.org
No Result
View All Result
Home NEWS Science News Biology

Starling success traced to rapid adaptation

Bioengineer by Bioengineer
February 9, 2021
in Biology
0
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedinShare on RedditShare on Telegram

Genetic evolution doesn’t always take millions of years

IMAGE

Credit: Ian Davies, Macaulay Library, Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

Ithaca, NY–Love them or hate them, there’s no doubt the European Starling is a wildly successful bird. A new study from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology examines this non-native species from the inside out. What exactly happened at the genetic level as the starling population exploded from just 80 birds released in New York City’s Central Park in 1890, peaking at an estimated 200 million breeding adults spread all across North America? The study appears in the journal Molecular Ecology.

“The amazing thing about the evolutionary changes among starling populations since they were introduced in North America is that the changes happened in a span of just 130 years in parallel with a huge expansion in the bird’s range and population size,” says lead author Natalie Hofmeister, a doctoral candidate at the Cornell Lab. “For a long time we didn’t think that was possible–that it took millions of years for genetic mutations to change a genome.”

The genetic differences found among North American starlings are very subtle. In fact, after researchers sequenced the genomes of birds from widely distributed locations around the United States, the genomes were all remarkably alike–any starling could undoubtedly mate successfully with another, no matter where they’re originally from. But the researchers did find the genetic signatures of change in areas of the genome that control how starlings adapt to variations in temperature and rainfall. Study authors concluded the birds had undergone “rapid local adaptation,” adjusting to conditions not found in their native European range.

Another key factor is movement. The study points out that there’s a lot of movement among starlings. All that movement means starlings kept establishing new populations as they spread westward, and each population had to adapt to new environments. The adaptation may not have resulted from a new mutation but from an existing genetic variation in the founding population.

“A genetic variation that might not have been useful in one environment could turn out to be very beneficial in another,” Hofmeister explains. “So, a variation related to temperature and rainfall that enhanced survival became more common in a new environment.” The massive size of the total starling population across North America meant these gene variants could be passed along across the generations.

European Starlings in North America are unusual in another way. Species with a highly restricted gene pool–a genetic bottleneck–are more likely to become extinct because of fertility issues associated with in-breeding, a problem that endangered animals also face. The introduction of just 80 birds in Central Park (released in an attempt to introduce all the birds mentioned in Shakespeare’s plays to North America) was one of many attempted introductions in other parts of the country. It’s possible the resulting gene flow among these populations prevented the species from dying out. It’s an area of speculation ripe for further study.

“What I think is really cool is that the starlings in North America appear to have adapted to different conditions across the range,” Hofmeister says. “So, it wasn’t just that they reproduced really quickly, and then just kept reproducing. It’s that they specialized once they arrived in new areas.”

Despite their success and large numbers, the European Starling is now in steep decline, like so many other species in North America. The current population is half the size it was 50 years ago–down from an estimated 166.2 million breeding birds in 1970 to 85.1 million (Rosenberg et. al. Science 2019) . The species is also declining in Europe.

Though starlings are reviled for some of their less admirable habits and their impact on native species, Hofmeister says they’re fascinating birds and really quite beautiful. And they’re allowing scientists to follow one of the many threads that influence avian evolution.

###

Reference:

Natalie R. Hofmeister, Scott J. Werner, Irby J. Lovette (2021) Environmental correlates of genetic variation in the invasive European starling in North America. Molecular Ecology.

Media Contact
Pat Leonard
[email protected]

Related Journal Article

http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/mec.15806

Tags: BiodiversityBiologyEvolutionGenetics
Share12Tweet8Share2ShareShareShare2

Related Posts

IMAGE

Air pollution fell sharply during lockdown

March 4, 2021
IMAGE

Gender assumptions harm progress on climate adaption and resilience

March 3, 2021

MDI Biological Laboratory receives funding to address arsenic threat

March 3, 2021

High end of climate sensitivity in new climate models seen as less plausible

March 3, 2021

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

POPULAR NEWS

  • IMAGE

    Terahertz accelerates beyond 5G towards 6G

    665 shares
    Share 266 Tweet 166
  • People living with HIV face premature heart disease and barriers to care

    83 shares
    Share 33 Tweet 21
  • Global analysis suggests COVID-19 is seasonal

    38 shares
    Share 15 Tweet 10
  • HIV: an innovative therapeutic breakthrough to optimize the immune system

    36 shares
    Share 14 Tweet 9

About

We bring you the latest biotechnology news from best research centers and universities around the world. Check our website.

Follow us

Tags

Cell BiologyTechnology/Engineering/Computer SciencePublic HealthEcology/EnvironmentInfectious/Emerging DiseasescancerBiologyMedicine/HealthClimate ChangeGeneticsMaterialsChemistry/Physics/Materials Sciences

Recent Posts

  • Research contributes to understanding of hypersonic flow
  • New microcomb could help discover exoplanets and detect diseases
  • Purdue Research Foundation partners with IdentifySensors Biologics for COVID-19 technology
  • Air pollution fell sharply during lockdown
  • Contact Us

© 2019 Bioengineer.org - Biotechnology news by Science Magazine - Scienmag.

No Result
View All Result
  • Homepages
    • Home Page 1
    • Home Page 2
  • News
  • National
  • Business
  • Health
  • Lifestyle
  • Science

© 2019 Bioengineer.org - Biotechnology news by Science Magazine - Scienmag.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Create New Account!

Fill the forms below to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In