On April 17, Mendel Medal recipient and Academia Sinica (Taiwan) Fellow Li Wen-Hsiung gave a guest lecture at SUSTech on the relationship between bird feather diversity and expression of the keratin gene.

Professor Li Wen-Hsiung has done extensive research in evolutionary biology, population genetics, and genomics. As Distinguished Researcher of Academia Sinica’s Biodiversity Research Center, his contributions to evolutionary biology and genetics saw him awarded the Balzan Prize, the highest achievement in the field of evolutionary biology.

Starting with the phenotype of bird feather diversity, Li Wen-Hsiung analyzed the molecular genetic etiology of curling hair by comparing feathers of different species of birds. Through the identification of curling mutations, it showed how important α keratin is in feather structure. Moreover, the application of in-situ hybridization technology can reveal the important role of α-β keratin interaction in determining the shape of the skin-accessory organs.

The progress made so far is closely linked to the development of technology. Since modern sequencing technology and bioinformatics greatly simplify the analysis of genome and regulatory sequence, scientists can use a variety of technologies to further explore the mechanism of molecular mutation in bird’s feathers.