Genetics of lekking birds

 In a recent study in collaboration with Robert Ekblom (Evolutionary Biology) we study the genomics of fitness associations in a lekking bird: the great snipe. We have done RNA-seq of blood samples from birds with known mating success, studied differential expression of annotated genes and have identified a number of candidate genes for mating success for which we have identified SNPs. These SNPs have been typed in more than 150 males with known mating success. Analyses are currently on-going. We have also recently submitted a manuscript in which we describe the first whole genome of a lekking bird: the black grouse.