In a contribution to an extraordinary international scientific collaboration, the University of Sydney found that genomic 'fossils' of past viral infections are up to thirteen times less common in birds than mammals. "We found that only five viral families have left a footprint in the bird genome (genetic material) during evolution. Our study therefore suggests that birds are either less susceptible to viral invasions or purge them more effectively than mammals," said Professor Edward Holmes, from the University of Sydney's Charles Perkins Centre, School of Biological Sciences and Sydney Medical School. "The results shed light on virus-host interactions across 100 million years of bird evolution." Professor Holmes is one of 200 scientists worldwide who have taken part in the ambitious scientific effort to sequence, assemble and compare the full genomes of 48 bird species. After four years of collaboration the findings are published in Science and simultaneously in associated publications on December 12, 2014. Their insights include how birds arrived at the spectacular biodiversity of more than 10,000 species. Professor Eddie Holmes is an author on the first flagship paper published inScience. "This exciting flagship paper presents a comprehensive history of how bird genomes have evolved along with a new family tree for birds. It also briefly covers our research on viral fossils in birds, covered in more detail in an article published (online on December 11, 2014) in Genome Biology," said Professor Holmes. "One of the most striking findings is the small size of bird genomes, and the small number of fossil viruses seems to match this," said Dr. Holmes. Together with his postdoctoral student Dr.Login Or Register To Read Full Story