Genomic studies have shown that chromosomal inversions may play an important role in adaptation, diversification and speciation. Chromosomal inversions protect co-adapted alleles from recombination with maladaptive ones, resulting in combinations of traits that are inherited together, as a single unit, called supergenes. Although theoretical studies suggest that this may be common across the tree of life, extensive genomic data is still scarce for most non-model organisms and it is not clear how often intra-population polymorphisms could be due to genomic inversions.

Preliminary data from our research group suggests that one very large chromosomal inversion may be affecting the genome of common quails in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula and that this could be associated with differences in pigmentation, size and wing shape.