ArticleMicrobiome2018
The gut of the finch: uniqueness of the gut microbiome of the Galápagos vampire finch.
Article in Microbiome, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 43 papers.
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Who cites it
43 citing papers in PubMed, 91 citations in OpenAlex.
- Endemic within endemics: the microbiota of the Galapagos marine iguanas.ISME communications · 2026Article
- Breed-specific gut microbiota and enterotype divergence in Chinese indigenous ducks.Frontiers in microbiology · 2025Article
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- Gut microbiota dynamics and their impact on body condition in nestlings of the yellow-rumped flycatchers,Frontiers in microbiology · 2025Article
- The Influence of Microbiota on Wild Birds' Parental Coprophagy Behavior: Current Advances and Future Research Directions.Microorganisms · 2024Review
- The gut microbiota of three avian species living in sympatry.BMC ecology and evolution · 2024Article
- The Role of Geography, Diet, and Host Phylogeny on the Gut Microbiome in the Hawaiian Honeycreeper Radiation.Ecology and evolution · 2024Article
- The influence of biotic and abiotic factors on the bacterial microbiome of gentoo penguins (Pygoscelis papua) in their natural environment.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Darwin's expedition revisited to reveal the evolution of plant-microbe interactions on Galápagos.Nature microbiology · 2024Article
- Impact of captivity and natural habitats on gut microbiome in Epinephelus akaara across seasons.BMC microbiology · 2024Article
- Article
- Temporal Variations in the Gut Microbiota of the Globally Endangered Sichuan Partridge (Arborophila rufipectus): Implications for Adaptation to Seasonal Dietary Change and Conservation.Applied and environmental microbiology · 2023Article
- Composition and function of the Galapagos penguin gut microbiome vary with age, location, and a putative bacterial pathogen.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Article
- The community ecology perspective of omics data.Microbiome · 2022Article
- Effect of diet on gut microbiota diversity in mandarin ducks (Aix galericulata) revealed by Illumina high-throughput sequencing.Archives of microbiology · 2022Article
- Organic geochemistry and mineralogy suggest anthropogenic impact in speleothem chemistry from volcanic show caves of the Galapagos.iScience · 2022Article
- Immunogenetic variation shapes the gut microbiome in a natural vertebrate population.Microbiome · 2022Article
- Significant compositional and functional variation reveals the patterns of gut microbiota evolution among the widespread Asian honeybee populations.Frontiers in microbiology · 2022Article
- High-fat diet-induced intestinal dysbiosis is associated with the exacerbation of Sjogren's syndrome.Frontiers in microbiology · 2022Article
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Authors and funding
15 authors at 7 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundDarwin's finches are a clade of 19 species of passerine birds native to the Galápagos Islands, whose biogeography, specialized beak morphologies, and dietary choices-ranging from seeds to blood-make them a classic example of adaptive radiation. While these iconic birds have been intensely studied, the composition of their gut microbiome and the factors influencing it, including host species, diet, and biogeography, has not yet been explored.
resultsWe characterized the microbial community associated with 12 species of Darwin's finches using high-throughput 16S rRNA sequencing of fecal samples from 114 individuals across nine islands, including the unusual blood-feeding vampire finch (Geospiza septentrionalis) from Darwin and Wolf Islands. The phylum-level core gut microbiome for Darwin's finches included the Firmicutes, Gammaproteobacteria, and Actinobacteria, with members of the Bacteroidetes at conspicuously low abundance. The gut microbiome was surprisingly well conserved across the diversity of finch species, with one exception-the vampire finch-which harbored bacteria that were either absent or extremely rare in other finches, including Fusobacterium, Cetobacterium, Ureaplasma, Mucispirillum, Campylobacter, and various members of the Clostridia-bacteria known from the guts of carnivorous birds and reptiles. Complementary stable isotope analysis of feathers revealed exceptionally high δ
conclusionsThis study demonstrates the overall conservatism of the finch gut microbiome over short (< 1 Ma) divergence timescales, except in the most extreme case of dietary specialization, and elevates the evolutionary importance of seasonal shifts in driving not only species adaptation, but also gut microbiome composition.
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