Assessing age, breeding stage, and mating activity as drivers of variation in the reproductive microbiome of female tree swallows.

ABSTRACT: Sexually transmitted microbes are hypothesized to influence the evolution of reproductive strategies. Though frequently discussed in this context, our understanding of the reproductive microbiome is quite nascent. Indeed, testing this hypothesis first requires establishing a baseline understanding of the temporal dynamics of the reproductive microbiome and of how individual variation in reproductive behavior and age influence the assembly and maintenance of the reproductive microbiome as a whole. Here, we ask how mating activity, breeding stage, and age influence the reproductive microbiome. We use observational and experimental approaches to explain variation in the cloacal microbiome of free-living, female tree swallows (Tachycineta bicolor). Using microsatellite-based parentage a

SUBMITTER: Hernandez J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8366841 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature