Early fruits of the collaboration between the Genome 10K project and Beijing Genomics Institute (BGI) to sequence 100 vertebrate species have resulted in the sequencing and release of the genome of one of naturalist Charles Darwin’s Galápagos finches, the medium ground finch Geospiza fortis.

This finch genome, the first of the BGI-Genome 10K collaboration to be made available through the UCSC Genome Browser, represents both a scientific and a symbolic advancement, according to Erich Jarvis, Duke University associate professor who studies the neurobiology of vocal learning in songbirds.

Endemic to the subtropical or tropical dry forests and shrublands of the Galápagos Islands this species evolves rapidly in response to environmental changes. ”These finches are of great historical significance, but when Darwin first studied these birds, he was unlikely to have envisioned how this species would become a perfect model to study evolution in action,” said Goujie Zhang, BGI’s associate director of research. “Having the reference genome of this species has opened the door for carrying out studies that can look at real-time evolutionary changes on a genomic level of all of these enigmatic species.”

(Image by: Petr Baum)