Role of epigenetics in evolution of memory and learning in reference of Songbird’s

A well-known songbird, the great tit, has discovered its genetic code, providing researchers new insight into how species adapt to an ever-changing planet. Their initial findings recommend that epigenetics -- what's on instead of what's within the gene -- might play a key role within the evolution of memory and learning. And that is not simply true for birds. An international research team led by The Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW) and Wageningen University can publish these findings in Nature Communications. "People in our field are expecting this for many years," explain researchers Kees van Oers and Veronika Laine from The Netherlands Institute of Ecology. The reference genome of their favorite model species, the great tit, is "a powerful tool case that each one ecologist and evolutionary biologists should know about." Coming from one Dutch bird, the genetic code of the assembled reference genome can facilitate to reveal the genetic basis of phenotypic evolution. This can be essential for understanding how wild species adapt to our ever-changing planet.

In addition to looking at the genome, the research team has conjointly determined the so-called transcriptome and methylome. The latter belongs to the sector of epigenetics: the study of what you'll be able to inherit not in but 'on' your genes. Specific DNA sequences within the genome may be 'methylated': methyl groups are added to them, modifying how the genes perform. What that research has discovered are so-called conserved patterns of methylation in those same regions, present not only in birds however additionally in humans and different mammals. It's proof of a correlation between epigenetic processes like methylation and the rate of molecular evolution: "the more methylation, the more evolution. And so the great tit has another time proved that its role as a model species during a kind of biological research fields for over sixty years is by no means coincidental.

For more: https://epigenetics.geneticconferences.com/