Florisuga fusca isolate:AF0CC37 Genome sequencing and assembly. Florisuga fusca isolate:AF0CC37

Vocal production learning, the rare ability to acquire new sounds from the environment, has evolved in songbirds, parrots, and hummingbirds, holding striking similarities with speech acquisition in humans. Over the past decade, several studies have been dedicated to unveiling the genetic basis of vocal learning in birds. However, the hummingbird clades remain understudied and genetic studies have been carried out only on a Bee hummingbird, the Anna's hummingbird (Calypte anna), as a model species. Furthermore, in a recent hummingbird phylogeny, this clade was identified as a recent radiation with a high mutation rate. The present study aims to provide a hummingbird model that represents the ancestral condition of the hummingbird family, the black jacobin (Florisuga fusca) which belongs to the Topaz clade. The black jacobin's distinct genome organization may reflect an accumulation of events that happened earlier along the evolution of hummingbirds. Therefore, our goal is to sequence and build the genome of the black jacobin as well as to perform a detailed gene annotation. To this extent, we expect to contribute to comparative studies that will shed light on the genetic basis of vocal production learning in birds. This project was conducted within the framework of cooperation of Lic. Amanda Monte, Dr Carolina Frankl-Vilches, Prof Dr Manfred Gahr from the behavioural neurobiology department of the Max Planck Institute of Ornithology (MPIO), Dr Heiner Kuhl from the Department of Ecophysiology and Aquaculture, Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB), Dr Bernd Timmermann from the Core Sequencing facility of the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics, Berlin, Dr Maria Luisa da Silva from the Laboratory of Ornithology and Bioacoustics, Federal University of Para, Belem, Brazil, and Helio de Queiroz Boudet Fernandes former director of the Museo de Biologia Mello Leitao,(MBML), Santa Teresa, Brazil.