ArticleMicrobiome2020
Maternal gut microbes shape the early-life assembly of gut microbiota in passerine chicks via nests.
Article in Microbiome, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 53 papers.
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Who cites it
53 citing papers in PubMed, 146 citations in OpenAlex.
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- Environmental Drivers on Blue Tit Nest Microbiome: An Experimental Study.Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
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- The elephant (bird) in the room: unknown mechanisms and unresolved impacts of low DNA yields in avian microbiome research.Animal microbiome · 2026Article
- Early-life gut microbiota differentiation in sympatric wild raptors.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- A Two-Year Study on Swifts (Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Migration-driven microbial adaptation and ecological spillover in birds.ISME communications · 2026Review
- Dynamics of Gut Microbiota in Japanese Tits (Microorganisms · 2025Article
- Microbiota-gut-brain axis in avian parenting: gut microbiome associates with nest-construction behavior and neural gene expression in a songbird.Animal microbiome · 2025Article
- Dynamic succession and origin of gut microbiota during early-life in White King pigeon.BMC microbiology · 2025Article
- An Early-Life Disruption of Gut Microbiota Has Opposing Effects on Parasite Resistance in Two Host Species.Molecular ecology · 2025Article
- Nest Microbial Community Dynamics Within the Nest-Building Stage of Green-Backed Tits (Ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- DRIVERS OF VARIATION OF THE ZEBRAFISH EGG MICROBIOME.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Pathological Findings of Nestling European Goldfinches (Veterinary sciences · 2025Article
- Natal soil consumption shifts gut microbiome in captive Ōkārito kiwi (Apteryx rowi).Animal microbiome · 2025Article
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- Microbiome Dynamics in Early Life Stages of the Precious Mediterranean Red Coral Corallium rubrum.Environmental microbiology reports · 2025Article
- Gut Microbiome Development in Rock Pigeons: Effects of Food Restriction Early in Life.Microorganisms · 2025Article
- Seasonal variation in gut microbiota of migratory wild raptors: a case study in white-tailed eagles.Animal microbiome · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundKnowledge is growing on how gut microbiota are established, but the effects of maternal symbiotic microbes throughout early microbial successions in birds remain elusive. In this study, we examined the contributions and transmission modes of maternal microbes into the neonatal microbiota of a passerine, the zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata), based on fostering experiments.
resultsUsing 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing, we found that zebra finch chicks raised by their biological or foster parents (the society finch Lonchura striata domestica) had gut microbial communities converging with those of the parents that reared them. Moreover, source-tracking models revealed high contribution of zebra finches' oral cavity/crop microbiota to their chicks' early gut microbiota, which were largely replaced by the parental gut microbiota at later stages. The results suggest that oral feeding only affects the early stage of hatchling gut microbial development.
conclusionsOur study indicates that passerine chicks mainly acquire symbionts through indirect maternal transmission-passive environmental uptake from nests that were smeared with the intestinal and cloacal microbes of parents that raised them. Gut microbial diversity was low in hand-reared chicks, emphasizing the importance of parental care in shaping the gut microbiota. In addition, several probiotics were found in chicks fostered by society finches, which are excellent foster parents for other finches in bird farms and hosts of brood parasitism by zebra finches in aviaries; this finding implies that avian species that can transfer probiotics to chicks may become selectively preferred hosts of brood parasitism in nature. Video Abstract.
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