Abstract

The new era of reference genomes is paving the way for understanding genome evolution across a broad range of taxa. While this finally permits genome research in previously neglected or inaccessible organisms, certain genome features (e.g., transposable elements, centromeres) and unusual chromosomes (e.g., sex chromosomes, germline-restricted chromosomes) require dedicated attention for elucidating their presence/absence and sequence evolution. Here I will discuss our ongoing efforts to combine state-of-the-art multi-omics with cytogenomics to understand the depth of genome variability between as well as within individuals of songbirds, and what we can learn from these case studies for ultimately being able to identify such variability in any organism of interest.