Tulane PhD student Sarah Khalil presented a strong talk at the AOS conference on genomic work that she has done as a visiting scholar in our lab at Cornell. Sarah’s presentation focused on her explorations of the genes that underlie the orange – red variation in male coloration in red-backed fairy-wrens. Sarah is using an active hybrid zone where these color forms intermix to prospect for the loci that are responsible for variation in this strongly sexually selected trait.
