Individual variation in the avian gut microbiota: The influence of host state and environmental heterogeneity

Somers, Shane E.; Davidson, Gabrielle L.; Johnson, Crystal N.; Reichert, Michael S.; Crane, Jodie M. S.; Ross, R. Paul; Stanton, Catherine; Quinn, John L.

doi:10.1111/mec.16919

Cited by 12 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 164 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…A plethora of studies have reported robust links between the nesting environment and chick gut microbiota [26,28,36,98]. Our findings align with the "nidobiome" concept, which integrates the collective effects of parents, nest conditions, and nestling interactions during microbiome assembly and their contribution over the developmental stages [24].…”

Section: Age Difference and Nest Similarity Driving Gut Compositional...supporting

confidence: 80%

Early-life factors shaping the gut microbiota of Common buzzard nestlings

Pereira,

Chakarov,

Hoffman

et al. 2024

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background: Exploring the dynamics of gut microbiome colonisation dur-ing early-life stages is important for understanding the potential impact of microbes on host development and fitness. Evidence from model organisms suggests a crucial early-life phase when shifts in gut microbiota can lead to immune dysregulation and reduced host condition. However, our understanding of gut microbiota colonisation in long-lived vertebrates, especially during early development, remains limited. We therefore used a wild population of common buzzard nestlings (Buteo buteo) to investigate connections between the early-life gut microbiota colonisation, environmental and host factors. Results: We targeted both bacterial and eukaryotic microbiota using the 16S and 28S rRNA genes. We sampled the individuals during early developmental stages in a longitudinal design. Our data revealed that age significantly affected microbial diversity and composition. Nest environment was a notable predictor of microbiota composition, with particularly eukaryotic communities differing between habitats occupied by the hosts. Nestling condition explained microbial community composition, while infection with the blood parasite Leucocytozoon was correlated with microbial beta diversity. Conclusion: Our findings emphasise the importance of studying microbiome dynamics to capture changes occurring during ontogeny. They highlight the role of microbial communities in reflecting host health and the importance of the nest environment for the developing nestling microbiome. Overall, this study contributes to understanding the complex interplay between microbial communities,h ost factors, and environmental variables, and sheds light on the mechanisms governing gut microbial colonisation during early-life stages.

show abstract

Section: Age Difference and Nest Similarity Driving Gut Compositional...supporting

confidence: 80%

Early-life factors shaping the gut microbiota of Common buzzard nestlings

Pereira,

Chakarov,

Hoffman

et al. 2024

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…A plethora of studies have reported robust links between the nesting environment and chick gut microbiota [ 26 , 28 , 36 , 98 ]. Our findings align with the ”nidobiome” concept, which integrates the collective effects of parents, nest conditions, and nestling interactions during microbiome assembly and their contribution over the developmental stages [ 24 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Early-life factors shaping the gut microbiota of Common buzzard nestlings

Pereira,

Chakarov,

Hoffman

et al. 2024

anim microbiome

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background Exploring the dynamics of gut microbiome colonisation during early-life stages is important for understanding the potential impact of microbes on host development and fitness. Evidence from model organisms suggests a crucial early-life phase when shifts in gut microbiota can lead to immune dysregulation and reduced host condition. However, our understanding of gut microbiota colonisation in long-lived vertebrates, especially during early development, remains limited. We therefore used a wild population of common buzzard nestlings (Buteo buteo) to investigate connections between the early-life gut microbiota colonisation, environmental and host factors. Results We targeted both bacterial and eukaryotic microbiota using the 16S and 28S rRNA genes. We sampled the individuals during early developmental stages in a longitudinal design. Our data revealed that age significantly affected microbial diversity and composition. Nest environment was a notable predictor of microbiota composition, with particularly eukaryotic communities differing between habitats occupied by the hosts. Nestling condition and infection with the blood parasite Leucocytozoon predicted microbial community composition. Conclusion Our findings emphasise the importance of studying microbiome dynamics to capture changes occurring during ontogeny. They highlight the role of microbial communities in reflecting host health and the importance of the nest environment for the developing nestling microbiome. Overall, this study contributes to understanding the complex interplay between microbial communities, host factors, and environmental variables, and sheds light on the ecological processes governing gut microbial colonisation during early-life stages.

show abstract

“…Such heterogeneity is not unusual for a wild system (e.g. Baniel et al., 2021; Risely et al., 2022; Somers et al., 2023), particularly in passerines whose short intestinal tracts (an adaptation to flight) may make them more susceptible to transient environmental microbes (Bodawatta et al., 2021; Song et al., 2020). However, high levels of heterogeneity may eliminate, or make it difficult to detect, consistent longitudinal changes in GM diversity and stability.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Longitudinal gut microbiome dynamics in relation to age and senescence in a wild animal population

Worsley,

Davies,

Lee

et al. 2024

Molecular Ecology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In humans, gut microbiome (GM) differences are often correlated with, and sometimes causally implicated in, ageing. However, it is unclear how these findings translate in wild animal populations. Studies that investigate how GM dynamics change within individuals, and with declines in physiological condition, are needed to fully understand links between chronological age, senescence and the GM, but have rarely been done. Here, we use longitudinal data collected from a closed population of Seychelles warblers (Acrocephalus sechellensis) to investigate how bacterial GM alpha diversity, composition and stability are associated with host senescence. We hypothesised that GM diversity and composition will differ, and become more variable, in older adults, particularly in the terminal year prior to death, as the GM becomes increasingly dysregulated due to senescence. However, GM alpha diversity and composition remained largely invariable with respect to adult age and did not differ in an individual's terminal year. Furthermore, there was no evidence that the GM became more heterogenous in senescent age groups (individuals older than 6 years), or in the terminal year. Instead, environmental variables such as season, territory quality and time of day, were the strongest predictors of GM variation in adult Seychelles warblers. These results contrast with studies on humans, captive animal populations and some (but not all) studies on non‐human primates, suggesting that GM deterioration may not be a universal hallmark of senescence in wild animal species. Further work is needed to disentangle the factors driving variation in GM‐senescence relationships across different host taxa.

show abstract

Individual variation in the avian gut microbiota: The influence of host state and environmental heterogeneity

Cited by 12 publications

References 164 publications

Early-life factors shaping the gut microbiota of Common buzzard nestlings

Early-life factors shaping the gut microbiota of Common buzzard nestlings

Early-life factors shaping the gut microbiota of Common buzzard nestlings

Longitudinal gut microbiome dynamics in relation to age and senescence in a wild animal population

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About