Social odour activates the hippocampal formation in zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata)

Golüke, Sarah; Bischof, Hans‐Joachim; Engelmann, Jacob; Caspers, Barbara A.; Mayer, Uwe

doi:10.1016/j.bbr.2019.02.013

Cited by 17 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 105 publications

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“…Although the exact pathways are not fully understood, one idea is that bacteria produce volatiles used in olfactory communication [13]. Although our study was not designed to prove an impact of bacteria on olfactory communication, the fact that birds and in particular zebra finches are known to use odours during intraspecific communication [11,33,34], in conjunction with the recent finding that bacteria are involved in odour production in the dark eyed junco [35], support this hypothesis.…”

Section: Missing Links and Further Implicationssupporting

confidence: 56%

Family matters: skin microbiome reflects the social group and spatial proximity in wild zebra finches

et al. 2020

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Background So far, large numbers of studies investigating the microbiome have focused on gut microbiota and less have addressed the microbiome of the skin. Especially in avian taxa our understanding of the ecology and function of these bacteria remains incomplete. The involvement of skin bacteria in intra-specific communication has recently received attention, and has highlighted the need to understand what information is potentially being encoded in bacterial communities. Using next generation sequencing techniques, we characterised the skin microbiome of wild zebra finches, aiming to understand the impact of sex, age and group composition on skin bacteria communities. For this purpose, we sampled skin swabs from both sexes and two age classes (adults and nestlings) of 12 different zebra finch families and analysed the bacterial communities. Results Using 16S rRNA sequencing we found no effect of age, sex and family on bacterial diversity (alpha diversity). However, when comparing the composition (beta diversity), we found that animals of social groups (families) harbour highly similar bacterial communities on their skin with respect to community composition. Within families, closely related individuals shared significantly more bacterial taxa than non-related animals. In addition, we found that age (adults vs. nestlings) affected bacterial composition. Finally, we found that spatial proximity of nest sites, and therefore individuals, correlated with the skin microbiota similarity. Conclusions Birds harbour very diverse and complex bacterial assemblages on their skin. These bacterial communities are distinguishable and characteristic for intraspecific social groups. Our findings are indicative for a family-specific skin microbiome in wild zebra finches. Genetics and the (social) environment seem to be the influential factors shaping the complex bacterial communities. Bacterial communities associated with the skin have a potential to emit volatiles and therefore these communities may play a role in intraspecific social communication, e.g. via signalling social group membership.

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Section: Missing Links and Further Implicationssupporting

confidence: 56%

Family matters: skin microbiome reflects the social group and spatial proximity in wild zebra finches

et al. 2020

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“…Although the exact pathways are not fully understood, one idea is that bacteria produce volatiles used in olfactory communication [38]. Although our study was not designed to prove an impact of bacteria on olfactory communication, the fact that birds and in particular zebra finches are known to use odours during intraspecific communication [39][40][41], in conjunction with the recent finding that bacteria are involved in odour production in the dark eyed junco [42], support this hypothesis.…”

Section: Missing Links and Further Implicationssupporting

confidence: 56%

Family matters: Skin microbiome reflects the social group and spatial proximity in wild zebra finches

Engel

Pankoke

Jünemann

et al. 2020

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Background: An animal’s skin is densely populated with a physiological community of bacteria that represents the first barrier to its environment. Investigations on the physiological skin flora have emerged in recent years, but especially in avian taxa our understanding of the ecology and function of these bacteria remains incomplete. The involvement of skin bacteria in intra-specific communication has received attention, and has highlighted the need to understand what information is potentially being encoded in bacterial communities. Using next generation sequencing techniques, we characterized the skin microbiome of wild zebra finches, aiming to understand the impact of sex, age, group composition, spatial distribution among families, and environment on skin bacteria communities. For this purpose, we sampled skin swabs from both sexes and two age classes (adults and nestlings) of 12 different zebra finch families and analysed the bacterial communities. Results: Using 16S rRNA sequencing we found that animals of social groups (families) harbour highly similar bacterial communities on their skin with respect to community composition. Closely related individuals shared significantly more bacterial taxa than non-related animals. While we did not find any effect of sex and age on bacterial diversity, we found that spatial proximity of nest sites, and therefore individuals, correlated with the skin microbiome. Conclusions: Birds harbour very diverse and complex bacterial assemblages on their skin. These bacterial communities are distinguishable and characteristic for intraspecific social groups. Our findings are indicative for a family-specific skin microbiome in wild zebra finches. Genetics and the (social) environment are influential factors shaping the complex bacterial communities. Bacterial communities associated with the skin have a potential to emit volatiles and therefore these communities may play a role in intraspecific social communication, e.g. via signalling social group membership.

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“…However, until recently, only few studies investigated the presence of similar effects at the neurobiological level (e.g., Johnston et al 1995). In our recent works, we started to tackle this issue reporting cases of neurobiological lateralisation in various brain areas of dark-incubated chicks (e.g., Mayer et al 2017;Lorenzi et al 2019;Morandi-Raikova and Mayer 2020;Morandi-Raikova et al 2021; see also Mayer et al 2016;Lorenzi et al 2017;Golüke et al 2019;Corrales Parada et al 2021 for similar trends). Intriguingly, in our latest work (Morandi-Raikova et al 2021), we described a case anatomical lateralisation in the entopallium of dark-incubated chicks.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Light-incubation effects on lateralisation of single unit responses in the visual Wulst of domestic chicks

et al. 2021

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Since the ground-breaking discovery that in-egg light exposure triggers the emergence of visual lateralisation, domestic chicks became a crucial model for research on the interaction of environmental and genetic influences for brain development. In domestic chick embryos, light exposure induces neuroanatomical asymmetries in the strength of visual projections from the thalamus to the visual Wulst. Consequently, the right visual Wulst receives more bilateral information from the two eyes than the left one. How this impacts visual Wulst’s physiology is still unknown. This paper investigates the visual response properties of neurons in the left and right Wulst of dark- and light-incubated chicks, studying the effect of light incubation on bilaterally responsive cells that integrate information from both eyes. We recorded from a large number of visually responsive units, providing the first direct evidence of lateralisation in the neural response properties of units of the visual Wulst. While we confirm that some forms of lateralisation are induced by embryonic light exposure, we found also many cases of light-independent asymmetries. Moreover, we found a strong effect of in-egg light exposure on the general development of the functional properties of units in the two hemispheres. This indicates that the effect of embryonic stimulation goes beyond its contribution to the emergence of some forms of lateralisation, with influences on the maturation of visual units in both hemispheres.

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Social odour activates the hippocampal formation in zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata)

Cited by 17 publications

References 105 publications

Family matters: skin microbiome reflects the social group and spatial proximity in wild zebra finches

Family matters: skin microbiome reflects the social group and spatial proximity in wild zebra finches

Family matters: Skin microbiome reflects the social group and spatial proximity in wild zebra finches

Light-incubation effects on lateralisation of single unit responses in the visual Wulst of domestic chicks

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