Comparative Immunogenomics of the holarctic Gyrfalcon and globally-distributed Peregrine Falcon

Please join us for our October Lunch & Learn series where we will welcome Sage Dale, Boise State Master’s student, who will speak about her Gyrfalcon and Peregrine Falcon research.

Low pathogen abundance throughout the Arctic has been advantageous for nesting birds to avoid diseases found at lower latitudes, but may have limited selective pressures to develop genomic mechanisms of immune defense. The poleward shift of vectors of diseases has increased opportunities for novel pathogen exposure to high latitude communities. There is a need to understand the genomic mechanisms of immunologically naive Arctic wildlife. Here, we leverage high quality genomes and a comparative genomic approach to characterize the innate immune genes of an essential protein of the vertebrate immune system, toll-like receptors (TLRs), between a specialized Arctic raptor with suspected low immune competence (Gyrfalcon, Falco rusticolus) and its globally distributed congener (Peregrine Falcon, Falco peregrinus). We hypothesize that TLRs will be closely related between falcon species, with Gyrfalcon showing lower TLR diversity.

Bio: Sage Dale is a Master’s or Raptor Biology student in the Conservation Genetics Lab at Boise State University. She’s interested in Arctic ecosystem biodiversity and using molecular and computational techniques to enhance traditional ecological methods for studying birds on these landscapes. While at BSU, she had the opportunity to participate in several long term gyrfalcon monitoring efforts including those with The Peregrine Fund in Nome, Alaska, the High Arctic Institute in NW Greenland, and with the Natural Science Institute of Iceland. Prior to graduate school, she received her bachelor’s in zoology from Oregon State University and spent several years working various field and research positions throughout the country and abroad. Some of these included working on raptor migration in New Mexico, spotted owl bioacoustics in Oregon, osprey distribution and relatedness studies throughout the southeast United States, and kiwi bird conservation in New Zealand.