ArticleNature communications2016
Ancient origin and maternal inheritance of blue cuckoo eggs.
Article in Nature communications, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 26 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
26 citing papers in PubMed.
- Ecological Context Constrains Host-Associated Genetic Structure in the Common Cuckoo.Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Genome-wide SNVs revealed reticulate evolutionary history of a Eurasian-African songbird radiation (Zoological research · 2026Article
- Characterization of the complete mitochondrial genome ofMitochondrial DNA. Part B, Resources · 2026Article
- Genomic resources for comparative analyses of obligate avian brood parasitism.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Beyond genes-for-behaviour: The potential for genomics to resolve long-standing questions in avian brood parasitism.Ecology and evolution · 2024Review
- Evolution and genetic architecture of sex-limited polymorphism in cuckoos.Science advances · 2024Article
- Article
- Eggshell composition and surface properties of avian brood-parasitic species compared with non-parasitic species.Royal Society open science · 2023Article
- The overlooked complexity of avian brood parasite-host relationships.Ecology letters · 2022Review
- Sex-limited chromosomes and non-reproductive traits.BMC biology · 2022Review
- Climate Warming Since the Holocene Accelerates West-East Communication for the Eurasian Temperate Water Strider Species Aquarius paludum.Molecular biology and evolution · 2022Article
- Genetic architecture facilitates then constrains adaptation in a host-parasite coevolutionary arms race.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2022Article
- Egg laying behavior of common cuckoos (Zoological research · 2020Article
- Chromosomal evolution and phylogenetic considerations in cuckoos (Aves, Cuculiformes, Cuculidae).PloS one · 2020Article
- Multiple costs are relevant for evolution of host anti-parasite defences. Reply to Yang CProceedings. Biological sciences · 2019Article
- The coevolutionary biology of brood parasitism: a call for integration.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2019Article
- Rearing a virulent common cuckoo is not extra costly for its only cavity-nesting host.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2018Article
- How to Make a Mimic? Brood Parasitic Striped Cuckoo Eggs Match Host Shell Color but Not Pigment Concentrations.Journal of chemical ecology · 2018Article
- Number of syllables in cuckoo Cuculus canorus calls: A test using a citizen science project.Scientific reports · 2018Article
- Characteristics determining host suitability for a generalist parasite.Scientific reports · 2018Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
11 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Maternal inheritance via the female-specific W chromosome was long ago proposed as a potential solution to the evolutionary enigma of co-existing host-specific races (or 'gentes') in avian brood parasites. Here we report the first unambiguous evidence for maternal inheritance of egg colouration in the brood-parasitic common cuckoo Cuculus canorus. Females laying blue eggs belong to an ancient (∼2.6 Myr) maternal lineage, as evidenced by both mitochondrial and W-linked DNA, but are indistinguishable at nuclear DNA from other common cuckoos. Hence, cuckoo host races with blue eggs are distinguished only by maternally inherited components of the genome, which maintain host-specific adaptation despite interbreeding among males and females reared by different hosts. A mitochondrial phylogeny suggests that blue eggs originated in Asia and then expanded westwards as female cuckoos laying blue eggs interbred with the existing European population, introducing an adaptive trait that expanded the range of potential hosts.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.