SEXUAL TRANSMISSION MAY DRIVE PAIR SIMILARITY OF THE CLOACAL MICROBIOME IN A POLYANDROUS SPECIES ...

• Main Authors: Prüter, Hanna, Gillingham, Mark, Krietsch, Johannes, Kuhn, Sylvia, Kempenaers, Bart
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: Zenodo 2023
• Subjects: Phalaropus fulicarius; Red Phalarope
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7928429; https://zenodo.org/record/7928429

1 All animals host a microbial community within and on their reproductive organs, known as the reproductive microbiome. In free-living birds, studies on the sexual transmission of bacteria have typically focused on a few pathogens instead of the bacterial community as a whole, despite a potential link to reproductive function. Theory predicts higher sexual transmission of the reproductive microbiome in females via the males’ ejaculates and higher rates of transmission in promiscuous systems. 2 We studied the cloacal microbiome of breeding individuals of a socially polyandrous, sex-role-reversed shorebird, the red phalarope ( Phalaropus fulicarius ). We expected (i) higher microbial diversity in females compared to males; (ii) low compositional differentiation between sexes; (iii) lower intraspecific variation in females than in males; (iv) convergence in composition as the breeding season progresses as a consequence of sexual transmission and/or shared habitat use; and, (v) higher similarity in microbial ...