The rise and fall of genes: insights from evolving neo-sex chromosomes

Purpose and aims: This proposal will uncover the evolutionary dynamics and functional consequences of gene birth and death in a remarkable study system: the complex sex chromosome system of Sylvioidea songbirds that my research group has detected and characterised recently.

The three main aims are: (1) To characterise how genes evolve functionally under novel selection regimes, and how genes degenerate by drift and inefficient selection. (2) To understand how a large number of translocated genes, and ongoing loss of one of two gene copies, affect gene regulatory networks. (3) To uncover how natural selection acts on the gene content of degenerating sex chromosomes.Organisation, time plan and methods: I will engage current members of my group (PI, a bioinformatician, one post-doc and one PhD-student) and take on one more PhD-student and a post-doc as part of this project.

The project will run between 2023-2026 (aim 1: years 1-2; aim 2: 2-3; aim 3: 3-4).

I will use state-of-the-art sequencing and bioinformatics methods throughout, and data from a unique long-term ecological study.Significance: This project will lead to breakthroughs in the understanding of several evolutionary processes that previously have been notoriously difficult to study: how genes are born and die, the evolution of regulatory networks, and the fitness consequences of carrying degenerated chromosomes.

I aim to push the fields of comparative genomics and sex chromosome evolution forward substantially.