The genetic basis of response to selection in natural bird populations - insight from state-of-the-art genomics analyses.

The natural environment of most natural plant and animal species is today changing fast as a consequence of human activities. Examples include environmental threats due to global warming, habitat fragmentation, and introduction of alien species. To cope w ith such threats and persist, populations of organisms need to be able to adapt to changing environmental conditions. Although short term evolution has been observed to occur, the genetic mechanisms constraining and promoting evolutionary changes of compl ex traits are little understood, in particular in natural populations. The current project will focus on the genetic basis for adaptive evolution of complex traits, and hence contribute to the advancement of our understanding of the evolutionary process, which is a cornerstone in biology. We will achieve this by innovative and multi-disciplinary research in the international forefront of the fields of evolutionary biology and statistics using and developing state-of-the-art functional genomics tools. Uniq ue empirical data will be obtained from artificial selection experiments carried out in two natural bird populations. One unselected natural population will be used as control. The project involves collaboration between junior and internationally leading senior researchers. The research team will consist of scientists from research groups in Norway and abroad that are recognised as internationally outstanding in their respective fields of research. Through this collaboration the project will build up a na tional and international network of expertise in the intersection between evolutionary biology and statistics, based on modern functional genomic methods.