Gut microbiota in two recently diverged passerine species: evaluating the effects of species identity, habitat use and geographic distance.

ABSTRACT:

Background

It has been proposed that divergence in the gut microbiota composition between incipient species could contribute to their reproductive isolation. Nevertheless, empirical evidence for the role of gut microbiota in speciation is scarce. Moreover, it is still largely unknown to what extent closely related species in the early stages of speciation differ in their gut microbiota composition, especially in non-mammalian taxa, and which factors drive the divergence. Here we analysed the gut microbiota in two closely related passerine species, the common nightingale (Luscinia megarhynchos) and the thrush nightingale (Luscinia luscinia). The ranges of these two species overlap in a secondary contact zone, where both species occasionally hybridize and where interspecific competit

SUBMITTER: Sottas C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7948333 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature