Avian Genomes: Important Resources for Understanding Vertebrate Biology

The recent completion of the draft of the chicken genome sequence, the first for an agriculturally important animal species, confirms the utility of this extensively-studied and most understood avian species, as well as the utility of other little-studied birds in vertebrate biology and human medicine. The emerging information from the chicken genome is expected to increase our understanding of phenomena important in human biology and that of other avian and livestock species. Insight into the genomes of the chicken and other birds may help us validate and also discover genetic mechanisms that underlie many important human diseases and conditions. An understanding of the budgerigar genome, for example, may provide information about the molecular mechanisms that influence the budgie's apparent resistance to oxidative stress. Similarly, our understanding of the turkey genome may help us define the relationship between oxidative stress and dilated cardiomyopathy in humans and other species. In this review, we will discuss the progress in avian genomics and provide a road map about where this progress will lead in the broad area of comparative genomics and our understanding of medically and biologically important phenomena.