The increased capacity of DNA sequencing has significantly advanced our understanding of
the phylogeny of birds and the proximate and ultimate mechanisms molding their genomic …

Until recently, the field of sex chromosome evolution has been dominated by the canonical
unidirectional scenario, first developed by Muller in 1918. This model postulates that sex …

Triggers and biological processes controlling male or female gonadal differentiation vary in
vertebrates, with sex determination (SD) governed by environmental factors or simple to …

Programmed DNA loss is a gene silencing mechanism that is employed by several
vertebrate and nonvertebrate lineages, including all living jawless vertebrates and …

Genome stability is a crucial feature of eukaryotic organisms because its alteration
drastically affects the normal development and survival of cells and the organism as a …

In some eukaryotes, germline and somatic genomes differ dramatically in their composition.
Here we characterise a major germline–soma dissimilarity caused by a germline-restricted …

Highlights•The GRC's absence from the soma might mitigate germline-soma conflict.•Sex-
specific copy number differences highlight the GRC's distorted transmission.•A …

Over the last few decades, an increasing number of vertebrate taxa have been identified that
undergo programmed genome rearrangement, or programmed DNA loss, during …

Organismal adaptations are the hallmark of natural selection. Studies of adaptations in avian
systems have been central to key conceptual and empirical advances in the field of …

Some species undergo programmed DNA elimination (PDE), whereby portions of the
genome are systematically destroyed in somatic cells. PDE has emerged independently in …