Research on avian phylogenomics, comparative genomics, genome evolution, speciation and evolutionary biology.
My name is shown in bold. † denotes co-first authors. Tags summarize authorship role, access, research programme and subject area. Selected citation and Altmetric tags are publisher snapshots from July 2026.
2026
GigaScience, giag078
A comprehensive reference genome assembly dataset of birds inhabiting Denmark, Greenland, and the Faroe Islands
Øksnebjerg DB†, Nielsen SD†, Chen G†, et al.
DOI →GigaScience 15, giag045
Draft assemblies for 177 bird species enhance genus-level coverage
Chen G†, Wang S†, Øksnebjerg DB†, Nielsen SD†, Dai W†, et al.
DOI →Evolution 80(6): 1343–1356
Founder effects drive high mitochondrial dN/dS in island rails
Wanders K, Oğuzhan Z, Stervander M, Kimball RT, Braun EL, Dreyer S, Øksnebjerg DB, Graves GR, Rahbek C, Chen G, Feng S, Zhang G and Hosner PA.
DOI →2025
Nature Reviews Biodiversity
Phylogenomics and comparative genomic perspective on the avian radiation
Chen G, Xie Y and Zhang G.
DOI →Avian Systematics 2: 85–98
Nesotrochidae, fam. nov.—a new name for the New World cave rails Nesotrochis spp., sister taxon of the New Zealand adzebills (Aptornithidae)
Stervander M, Chen G, Feng S and Mayr G.
PDF →2024
Nature Communications 15, 3151
Adaptive expansion of ERVK solo-LTRs is associated with Passeriformes speciation events
Chen G, Yu D, Yang Y, Li X, Wang X, Sun D, Lu Y, Ke R, Zhang G, Cui J and Feng S.
DOI →Proceedings B 291: 20240397
Role-reversed polyandry is associated with faster fast-Z in shorebirds
Wanders K†, Chen G†, Feng S, Székely T and Urrutia AO.
DOI →Nature
Complexity of avian evolution revealed by family-level genomes
Stiller J, Feng S, Chowdhury A, Rivas-González I, Duchene D, Fang Q, Deng Y, Kozlov O, Stamatakis A, Claramunt S, Nguyen J, Ho S, Faircloth B, Haag J, Houde P, Cracraft J, Balaban M, Mai U, Chen G, et al.
DOI →Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 121(15)
A region of suppressed recombination misleads neoavian phylogenomics
Mirarab S, Rivas-González I, Feng S, Stiller J, Fang Q, Mai U, Hickey G, Chen G, Brajuka N, Fedrigo O, Formenti G, Wolf JBW, Howe K, Antunes A, Schierup MH, Paten B, Jarvis ED, Zhang G and Braun EL.
DOI →2023
Cell Research
The complete and fully-phased diploid genome of a male Han Chinese
Yang C, Zhou Y, Song Y, Wu D, Zeng Y, Nie L, Liu P, Zhang S, Chen G, et al.
DOI →Nature Ecology & Evolution
Species-specific traits mediate avian demographic responses under past climate change
Germain RR, Feng S, Chen G, Graves GR, Tobias JA, Rahbek C, Lei F, Fjeldså J, Hosner PA, Gilbert MTP, Zhang G and Nogués-Bravo D.
DOI →Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 120
Changes in the functional diversity of modern bird species over the last million years
Germain RR, Feng S, Buffan L, Carmona CP, Chen G, Graves GR, Tobias JA, Rahbek C, Lei F, Fjeldså J, Hosner PA, Gilbert MTP, Zhang G and Nogués-Bravo D.
DOI →Evolution
Polygamy and purifying selection in birds
Wanders K, Chen G, Feng S, Zhang G, Székely T, Bruford M, Végvári Z, Eichhorn G and Urrutia A.
DOI →2022
Scientific Data 9: 564
Draft genome assemblies of four manakins
Li X, Gao R, Chen G, Price AL, Øksnebjerg DB, Hosner PA, Zhou Y, Zhang G and Feng S.
DOI →Cell
Incomplete lineage sorting and phenotypic evolution in marsupials
Feng S, Bai M, Rivas-González I, Li C, Liu S, Tong Y, Yang H, Chen G, et al.
DOI →2021
iScience 24: 103226
Kouprey (Bos sauveli) genomes unveil polytomic origin of wild Asian Bos
Sinding M-HS, Ciucani MM, Ramos-Madrigal J, Carmagnini A, Rasmussen JA, Feng S, Chen G, et al.
DOI →Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 118
Response of an Afro-Palearctic bird migrant to glaciation cycles
Thorup K, Pedersen L, da Fonseca RR, Naimi B, Nogués-Bravo D, Krapp M, Manica A, Willemoes M, Sjöberg S, Feng S, Chen G, et al.
DOI →Journal of Genetics and Genomics
Phylogeny and sex chromosome evolution of Palaeognathae
Wang Z, Zhang J, Xu X, Witt C, Deng Y, Chen G, Meng G, Feng S, Xu L, Szekely T, Zhang G and Zhou Q.
DOI →Animals 11: 3264
Comparable number of genes having experienced positive selection among great ape species
Xie D, Chen G, Meng X, Wang H, Bi X, Fang M, Yang C, Zhou Y, Long E and Feng S.
DOI →2020
Zoological Research 41
Dynamic evolution of transposable elements, demographic history, and gene content of paleognathous birds
Wang Z-J, Chen G-J, Zhang G-J and Zhou Q.
DOI →Nature 587: 252–257
Dense sampling of bird diversity increases power of comparative genomics
Feng S, Stiller J, Deng Y, Armstrong J, Fang Q, Reeve AH, Xie D, Chen G, et al.
DOI →2019
Current Biology 29: 340–349
The genomic footprints of the fall and recovery of the crested ibis
Feng S, Fang Q, Barnett R, Li C, Han S, Kuhlwilm M, Zhou L, Pan H, Deng Y, Chen G, et al.
DOI →