Lonchura striata (Bengalese finch) genome, bLonStr1, sequence data
The Bengalese finch (Lonchura striata domestica) is a domesticated subspecies of finch. It became a popular cage and trade bird after appearing in European zoos in the 1860s through being imported from Japan, though it was domesticated in China. Coloration and behavior were modified through centuries of selection in Asia, then later in Europe and North America. Another aspect of the Bengalese finch that evolved throughout the centuries is song production. Extensive research has been done and continues to be done on the different ways Bengalese finch songs are produced, how they are processed in the brain, what characteristics of the songs are preferred by females, and how their songs compare to the also commonly studied zebra finch (from Wikipedia entry). This sample of a male individual was procured by Matthew Biegler at the Rockefeller University Field Research Center in Millbrook, New York, for a vocal learning study and to generate a high-quality reference genome for the Vertebrate Genomes Project (VGP). Sequencing and genome assembly were conducted at the Vertebrate Genome Lab (VGL) at the Rockefeller University, led by Erich D. Jarvis, Giulio Formenti, and Jennifer Balacco.