Convergent genomic signatures of flight loss in birds suggest a switch of main fuel

Flight loss in birds is as characteristic of the class Aves as flight itself. Although morphological and physiological differences are recognized in flight-degenerate bird species, their contributions to recurrent flight degeneration events across modern birds and underlying genetic mechanisms remain unclear. Here, in an analysis of 295 million nucleotides from 48 bird genomes, we identify two convergent sites causing amino acid changes in ATGL Ser321Gly and ACOT7 Ala197Val in flight-degenerate birds, which to our knowledge have not previously been implicated in loss of flight. Functional assays suggest that Ser321Gly reduces lipid hydrolytic ability of ATGL, and Ala197Val enhances acyl-CoA hydrolytic activity of ACOT7. Modeling simulations suggest a switch of main energy sources from lipids to carbohydrates in flight-degenerate birds. Our results thus suggest that physiological convergence plays an important role in flight degeneration, and anatomical convergence often invoked may not. Flight loss has occurred numerous times in bird evolution. Here, the authors examine convergent sites in the exonic and intronic sequences of 48 bird genomes, finding amino-acid changes in two genes, ATGL and ACOT7 , with potential implications for a change in metabolism rather than anatomy.