GENETIC BASIS OF SIMPLE AND COMPLEX TRAITS WITH HIGH IMPORTANCE FOR AVIAN EVOLUTION

STUDENT SEMINAR IN BIODIVERSITY AND EVOLUTION

During my PhD I focused on identifying genes underlying simple and complex traits using genomics and population genetics to answer questions of general interest in evolutionary biology. I used domestic bird species (pigeons and canaries) as a model, what facilitated possibility to find genes causing extreme phenotypic variation, which resulted from the strong artificial selection. I described genetic basis underlying traits of general importance in avian biology and evolution, such as coloration, sexual dimorphism in canary birds as well as flying performance and orientation in racing pigeons. During the seminar I will present the summary of my four projects that I did during my PhD, with exciting results that contributed to our understanding of genotype-phenotype interactions.

Małgorzata Anna Gazda is currently a PhD student at CIBIO-InBIO/University of Porto, supervised by Miguel Carneiro and Ricardo J Lopes. She graduated from the Jagiellonian University in Kracow, Poland with a MSc thesis about heterozygosity-fitness correlations. Afterwards she gained experience working 2 years in the Museum and Institute of Zoology Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland and Technical University of Munchen, Germany as a research assistant in the project about coevolution of cuckoo and gerygone.

[Host: Miguel Carneiro, Evolutionary Genetics and Genomics]

Image credits: Carito Lemo