Dense sampling of bird diversity increases power of comparative genomics

Whole-genome sequencing projects are increasingly populating the tree of life and characterizing biodiversity1–4. Sparse taxon sampling has previously been proposed to confound phylogenetic inference5, and captures only a fraction of the genomic diversity. Here we report a substantial step towards the dense representation of avian phylogenetic and molecular diversity, by analysing 363 genomes from 92.4% of bird families—including 267 newly sequenced genomes produced for phase II of the Bird 10,000 Genomes (B10K) Project. We use this comparative genome dataset in combination with a pipeline that leverages a reference-free whole-genome alignment to identify orthologous regions in greater numbers than has…

• UO
  University of Otago
• LS
  Louisiana State University
• VF
  Villum Fonden

  Award: 25900
• NN
  National Natural Science Foundation of China

  Awards: 25900, 31901214
• CA
  Chinese Academy of Sciences

  Awards: XDB31020000, 152453KYSB20170002
• DE
  Danish e-Infrastructure Cooperation
• DT
  Danmarks Tekniske Universitet
• NI
  National Institutes of Health

  Awards: U01HL137183, U54HG007990, 1U01HL137183, 5T32HG008345-04, 5U54HG007990, R01HG010053