Convergent regulatory evolution and loss of flight in paleognathous birds

All roads lead to regulation Species from widely divergent taxa can experience similar changes in traits. What underlying genetic drivers cause these parallel changes remains an open question. Sackton et al. looked across groups of birds that have repeatedly lost flight, the ratites and tinamous, and found that there is convergence in the regulatory regions associated with genes related to flight, but not within the protein coding regions. Changes within these regulatory regions influenced limb development and may represent quick paths toward convergent change across taxa. Science , this issue p. 74