Presentation Detail

Community Ecology and Evolution

Hird, Sarah M [1], Carstens, Bryan [2], Brumfield, Robb [1].

Nature, nurture and the gut microbiota in the brood parasitic Brown-headed Cowbird.

Brown-headed cowbirds (Molothrus ater) are the most widespread avian brood parasite in North America, laying their eggs in the nests of over 200 host species that then raise the cowbird nestlings as their own. It is currently unknown how these heterospecific hosts shape the cowbird gut microbiota relative to other factors, such as the local environment and genetics. These hypotheses (i.e., Nature v. Nurture) are tested using the V6 region of rRNA as a microbial fingerprint of the gut from 32 cowbird samples and 16 brood host samples representing nine species. We collected an average of 80,000 reads per bird and analyzing the reads individually and as whole communities, we found no evidence for the Nature Hypothesis and little support for the Nurture Hypothesis. Cowbird gut microbiota did not form a monotypic cluster, but neither did members of the host species. Rather, the physical location, diet and age of the bird, whether cowbird or host, were the most significant categorical variables. Thus, avian gut microbiota appear to be influenced primarily by environmental factors. To put this variation in a broader context, we compared the bird data to a fecal microbiota dataset of 38 mammal species and 22 insect species. Insects were always most variable; however, on some axes, we found more variation within cowbirds than across allmammals. Our results suggest that cowbird gut microbiota is environmentally driven and extremely diverse. Additionally, these results show that museum genetic resource collections provide a novel source of samples for microbiota studies.

1 - Louisiana State University, Biological Sciences and the Museum of Natural Science, 119 Foster Hall, Baton Rouge, LA, 70803, USA
2 - The Ohio State University EEOB, 318 W. 12th Avenue, Columbus, OH Ohio, 43210, United States

Keywords:
gut microbiota
brood parasite
cowbird
microbial ecology.

Presentation Type: Regular Oral Presentation
Session: 139
Location: Peruvian A/Snowbird Center
Date: Tuesday, June 25th, 2013
Time: 10:30 AM
Number: 139001
Abstract ID:252
Candidate for Awards:W.D. Hamilton Award for Outstanding Student Presentation,Student Travel Awards from the ASN