Do feather-degrading bacteria actually degrade feather colour? No significant effects of plumage microbiome modifications on feather colouration in wild great tits

Jacob, Staffan; Colmas, Léa; Parthuisot, Nathalie; Heeb, Philipp

doi:10.1007/s00114-014-1234-7

Cited by 16 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…Microorganisms can significantly reduce the quality of feathers through feather degradation (Jacob, Colmas, Parthuisot, & Heeb, 2014;Leclaire, Pierret, Chatelain, & Gasparini, 2014;Ruiz-Rodríguez et al, 2009;Shawkey, Pillai, & Hill, 2009) and hence the flight ability of prey. Any such damage to the plumage would be selected against, with damage to the plumage reaching such extremes as complete degradation and hence disappearance of barbules, barbs, or even loss of entire segments of feathers (e.g., Kim, Lim, & Suh, 2001;Møller et al, 2013;Onifade, Al-Sane, Al-Musallam, & Al-Zarban, 1998;Ruiz-Rodríguez et al, 2009).…”

Section: Such Interactions Between Predators and Prey May Results In Cmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fungi, feather damage, and risk of predation

Rubaiee

Al-Murayati

Nielsen³

et al. 2017

Ecology and Evolution

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Predation is a powerful selective force with important effects on behavior, morphology, life history, and evolution of prey. Parasites may change body condition, health status, and ability to escape from or defend prey against predators. Once a prey individual has been detected, it can rely on a diversity of means of escape from the pursuit by the predator. Here we tested whether prey of a common raptor differed in terms of fungi from nonprey recorded at the same sites using the goshawk Accipiter gentilis and its avian prey as a model system. We found a positive association between the probability of falling prey to the raptor and the presence and the abundance of fungi. Birds with a specific composition of the community of fungi had higher probability of falling prey to a goshawk than individual hosts with fewer fungi. These findings imply that fungi may play a significant role in predator–prey interactions. The probability of having damaged feathers increased with the number of fungal colonies, and in particular the abundance of Myceliophthora verrucos and Schizophyllum sp. was positively related to the probability of having damaged feathers. In addition, we found a significant correlation between the rate of feather growth of goshawk prey with birds with more fungi being more likely to be depredated. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that survival and feather quality of birds are related to abundance and diversity of fungi.

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Section: Such Interactions Between Predators and Prey May Results In Cmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fungi, feather damage, and risk of predation

Rubaiee

Al-Murayati

Nielsen³

et al. 2017

Ecology and Evolution

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“…Investigating whether competitive interactions between microbes led to this intriguing result and to what extent feather microbiome regulation by birds might take part in it is required to develop our understanding of bird–microbiome interactions (Shawkey, Pillai & Hill ; Jacob et al . ,b).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…; Morgan, Segata & Huttenhower ; Jacob et al . ,b), and our understanding of the relative effects of the various components of the microbiome on the birds is particularly limited. Here, we found that increasing nest bacterial densities and modifying the bacterial community composition, as produced in the TSB treatment, had no overall significant effect on egg compounds and nestling development.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Microbiome affects egg carotenoid investment, nestling development and adult oxidative costs of reproduction in Great tits

et al. 2015

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Summary 1.Parasites influence allocation trade-offs between reproduction and self-maintenance and consequently shape host life-history traits. The host microbiome includes pathogenic and commensal micro-organisms that are remarkable in their diversity and ubiquity. However, experimental studies investigating whether the microbiome shapes host reproduction are still lacking. 2.In this study, we tested whether the microbiome affects three important components of bird reproduction, namely (i) the maternal transfer of anti-microbial compounds to the eggs, (ii) the development of nestlings and (iii) the trade-off between reproduction and self-maintenance, here measured by the oxidative costs of reproduction. 3. We experimentally modified the microbiome of wild breeding Great tits (Parus major) by spraying nests with liquid solution that either favoured or inhibited bacterial growth compared to a control. These treatments modified the bacterial communities in the nests and on adult feathers. 4. We found that females from the treatment that decreased bacterial densities in the nests laid eggs with less carotenoids than females from the control, while we found no significant effect of increasing bacterial densities and modifying community composition compared to the control. Nestlings exposed to decreased bacterial densities grew faster and had longer tarsus length at fledging. Moreover, our analyses revealed that the relationship between investment in reproduction and oxidative damage was affected by the treatments. Adults raising larger clutches suffered higher oxidative damage in control nests, whereas this oxidative cost of reproduction was not detected when we modified bird microbiome. 5. Our study provides experimental evidence for an effect of the microbiome on egg carotenoid investment, nestling development and oxidative cost of reproduction and thus highlights the major effect that the microbiome may have on the evolution of host life-history strategies.

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“…), and the in vivo association between FDB and plumage condition is still largely unexplored (Gunderson , exceptions are Jacob et al . , Leclaire et al . ).…”

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Feather‐degrading bacteria, uropygial gland size and feather quality in House SparrowsPasser domesticus

Fülöp

Czirják

Pap

et al. 2016

Ibis

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2Feathers are dead integumentary structures that are prone to damage and thus show gradual degradation over the course of a year. This loss of quality might have negative fitness consequences. Feather-degrading bacteria are some of the most prevalent featherdegrading organisms, yet the relationship between feather-degrading bacteria load and flight feather quality has rarely been assessed. We studied this relationship in free-living House Sparrows during breeding and non-breeding annual lifecycle stages. We also considered the size of the uropygial gland, given the antimicrobial function of its secretions, and the effect of body condition. The number of feather holes was positively associated with feather-degrading bacteria load and was negatively related to uropygial gland size and body condition during the breeding season in both sexes. In the non-breeding season we found the same relationships, but only in females. The degree of feather wear was unrelated to any of the variables measured during the breeding season, whereas it was negatively associated with uropygial gland size and positively with feather-degrading bacteria load in the non-breeding season, but only in females. Our results suggest that feather-degrading bacteria may induce the formation of feather holes, but play only a minor role in the abrasion of flight feathers.

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Do feather-degrading bacteria actually degrade feather colour? No significant effects of plumage microbiome modifications on feather colouration in wild great tits

Cited by 16 publications

References 48 publications

Fungi, feather damage, and risk of predation

Fungi, feather damage, and risk of predation

Microbiome affects egg carotenoid investment, nestling development and adult oxidative costs of reproduction in Great tits

Feather‐degrading bacteria, uropygial gland size and feather quality in House SparrowsPasser domesticus

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