Skip to content
DraconiticResearch
Search Sources API
203,203 studies31 sourcesUpdated 32 min ago
Peer-reviewedCC BYAnimal Microbiome

Functional phylosymbiosis in birds: phylogeny and antimicrobial properties of bacterial symbionts in Bucerotiformes

  • María Dolores Barón1
  • Manuel Martín-Vivaldi2
  • Ester Martínez-Renau1
  • Raphaël Arlettaz3
  • Derek Engelbrecht4
  • Charlotte Enkvist5
  • Elbert Lukas Jansen van Rensburg6
  • Lu Zhang7
  • Antonio Martín-Platero8
  • Manuel Martínez-Bueno8
  • Ángela Martínez-García1
  • Cristina Ruiz-Castellano1
6 more authors
  • Michael Schaub9
  • Mark Stanback10
  • Tanja M. F. N. van de Ven11
  • Elin Videvall5
  • Wei Liang7
  • Juan José Soler1
11 affiliations
  1. 1Departamento de Ecología Funcional y Evolutiva, Estación Experimental de Zonas Áridas (EEZA-CSIC)
  2. 2Departamento de Zoología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Granada
  3. 3Division of Conservation Biology, Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Bern
  4. 4Department of Biodiversity, University of Limpopo
  5. 5Department of Ecology and Genetics, Uppsala University
  6. 6Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Biotechnology, University of Limpopo
  7. 7Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Ecology of Tropical Islands, College of Life Sciences, Hainan Normal University
  8. 8Unidad Asociada (CSIC): Coevolución: Cucos, Hospedadores y Bacterias Simbiontes, Universidad de Granada
  9. 9Swiss Ornithological Institute
  10. 10Department of Biology, Davidson College
  11. 11Mogalakwena Research Centre
Read full textDOICite

Abstract

Bacterial symbionts and their animal hosts differ in the strength and type of selection pressures that promote their evolution and, as some host traits are phylogenetically conserved, their symbiotic bacterial communities could also exhibit greater similarity than expected by chance; a pattern known as phylosymbiosis. This might result from differences in bacterial assemblages across species-specific habitats, and/or from natural selection favouring host traits that allow harbouring functional species-specific bacteria (functional phylosymbiosis). We explored these patterns in eight Bucerotiformes taxa, including hoopoes, woodhoopoes, and hornbills, of which hoopoes and woodhoopoes harbour antibiotic-producing symbionts in their uropygial gland. We characterised uropygial secretion bacterial communities using high-throughput 16S-rRNA gene sequencing and analysed its association with avian phylogeny. Furthermore, we quantified antimicrobial activity of bacterial isolates, and explored its relationship with host phylogenetic distances and bacterial community composition. We found a significant correlation between avian phylogeny and bacterial community dissimilarities, supporting phylosymbiosis. Moreover, antimicrobial activity was significantly predicted by bacterial community composition and the relative abundance of particular strains in hoopoes and woodhoopoes. These findings suggest that antimicrobial properties of symbionts could be responsible for the detected phylosymbiosis and that natural selection may favour uropygial gland features allowing hosts to harbour specific antimicrobial-producing symbionts.

Related

  1. Bee phylosymbiosis: the relative importance of host phylogeny, behavioral traits, and environment
    L. Sun, J. Ekroos, A. Duplouy
    bioRxivPreprintCC BY-NCFull textMicrobiologybioRxiv
  2. Bee Microbiomes Across Phylogeny and Functional Traits: Examining Host-Cleptoparasite Associations.
    Katherine D Chau, Trevor J L Sless, Phuong N Nguyen +1
    Microbial ecologyPeer-reviewedCC BY-NC-NDFull textGenetics & genomicsEurope PMCPMC
  3. Functional gene content of fungi in a pine needle disease system largely reflects their phylogeny
    Gabriel Amorim de Albuquerque Silva, Temitope Folorunso, Lori Eckhardt +1
    EcoEvoRxivPreprintCC BY 4.0Full textBioinformatics & computational biologyEcologyEcoEvoRxiv
  4. Effect of Mushroom-Bacteria Co-culture on Mushroom Growth and Antimicrobial Properties
    E. Wang, N. T. Cavanaugh, Y. He +1
    bioRxivPreprintCC BY-NC-NDFull textMicrobiologybioRxiv
  5. In vitro assessment of Sargassum platycarpum extract as a novel antimicrobial agent and functional prebiotics
    Eman H. Zaghloul, Khaled N. M. Elsayed, Ahmed Ismail +1
    Scientific ReportsPeer-reviewedCC BY 4.0Full textEcologyCrossref

Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@article{baron2026functional,
  title = {{Functional phylosymbiosis in birds: phylogeny and antimicrobial properties of bacterial symbionts in Bucerotiformes}},
  author = {María Dolores Barón and Manuel Martín-Vivaldi and Ester Martínez-Renau and Raphaël Arlettaz and Derek Engelbrecht and Charlotte Enkvist and Elbert Lukas Jansen van Rensburg and Lu Zhang and Antonio Martín-Platero and Manuel Martínez-Bueno and Ángela Martínez-García and Cristina Ruiz-Castellano and Michael Schaub and Mark Stanback and Tanja M. F. N. van de Ven and Elin Videvall and Wei Liang and Juan José Soler},
  journal = {Animal Microbiome},
  year = {2026},
  month = aug,
  doi = {10.1186/s42523-026-00608-y},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1186/s42523-026-00608-y},
  note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY  - JOUR
TI  - Functional phylosymbiosis in birds: phylogeny and antimicrobial properties of bacterial symbionts in Bucerotiformes
AU  - María Dolores Barón
AU  - Manuel Martín-Vivaldi
AU  - Ester Martínez-Renau
AU  - Raphaël Arlettaz
AU  - Derek Engelbrecht
AU  - Charlotte Enkvist
AU  - Elbert Lukas Jansen van Rensburg
AU  - Lu Zhang
AU  - Antonio Martín-Platero
AU  - Manuel Martínez-Bueno
AU  - Ángela Martínez-García
AU  - Cristina Ruiz-Castellano
AU  - Michael Schaub
AU  - Mark Stanback
AU  - Tanja M. F. N. van de Ven
AU  - Elin Videvall
AU  - Wei Liang
AU  - Juan José Soler
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/08/01
JO  - Animal Microbiome
DO  - 10.1186/s42523-026-00608-y
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1186/s42523-026-00608-y
AB  - Bacterial symbionts and their animal hosts differ in the strength and type of selection pressures that promote their evolution and, as some host traits are phylogenetically conserved, their symbiotic bacterial communities could also exhibit greater similarity than expected by chance; a pattern known as phylosymbiosis. This might result from differences in bacterial assemblages across species-specific habitats, and/or from natural selection favouring host traits that allow harbouring functional species-specific bacteria (functional phylosymbiosis). We explored these patterns in eight Bucerotiformes taxa, including hoopoes, woodhoopoes, and hornbills, of which hoopoes and woodhoopoes harbour antibiotic-producing symbionts in their uropygial gland. We characterised uropygial secretion bacterial communities using high-throughput 16S-rRNA gene sequencing and analysed its association with avian phylogeny. Furthermore, we quantified antimicrobial activity of bacterial isolates, and explored its relationship with host phylogenetic distances and bacterial community composition. We found a significant correlation between avian phylogeny and bacterial community dissimilarities, supporting phylosymbiosis. Moreover, antimicrobial activity was significantly predicted by bacterial community composition and the relative abundance of particular strains in hoopoes and woodhoopoes. These findings suggest that antimicrobial properties of symbionts could be responsible for the detected phylosymbiosis and that natural selection may favour uropygial gland features allowing hosts to harbour specific antimicrobial-producing symbionts.
SN  - 2524-4671
ER  -