High dispersal ability versus migratory traditions: Fine-scale population structure and post-glacial colonisation in bar-tailed godwits.

In migratory animals, high mobility may reduce population structure through increased dispersal and enable adaptive responses to environmental change, whereas rigid migratory routines predict low dispersal, increased structure, and limited flexibility to respond to change. We explore the global population structure and phylogeographic history of the bar-tailed godwit, Limosa lapponica, a migratory shorebird known for making the longest non-stop flights of any landbird. Using nextRAD sequencing of 14,318 single-nucleotide polymorphisms and scenario-testing in an Approximate Bayesian Computation framework, we infer that bar-tailed godwits existed in two main lineages at the last glacial maximum, when much of their present-day breeding range persisted in a vast, unglaciated Siberian-Beringian refugium, followed by admixture of these lineages in the eastern Palearctic.

DNA metabarcoding quantifies the relative biomass of arthropod taxa in songbird diets: Validation with camera-recorded diets.

Ecological research is often hampered by the inability to quantify animal diets. Diet composition can be tracked through DNA metabarcoding of fecal samples, but whether (complex) diets can be quantitatively determined with metabarcoding is still debated and needs validation using free-living animals. This study validates that DNA metabarcoding of feces can retrieve actual ingested taxa, and most importantly, that read numbers retrieved from sequencing can also be used to quantify the relative biomass of dietary taxa.

Growth, maturity, and diet of the pearl whipray () from the Bijagós Archipelago, Guinea-Bissau.

The pearl whipray (Compagno & Roberts, 1984) is a common elasmobranch in coastal western African waters. However, knowledge on their life-history and trophic ecology remains limited. Therefore, we aimed to determine the growth, maturity and diet of from the Bijagós Archipelago in Guinea-Bissau.

Global flyway evolution in red knots Calidris canutus and genetic evidence for a Nearctic refugium.

Present-day ecology and population structure are the legacies of past climate and habitat perturbations, and this is particularly true for species that are widely distributed at high latitudes. The red knot, Calidris canutus, is an arctic-breeding, long-distance migratory shorebird with six recognized subspecies defined by differences in morphology, migration behavior, and annual cycle phenology, in a global distribution thought to have arisen just since the last glacial maximum (LGM). We used nextRAD sequencing of 10,881 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) to assess the neutral genetic structure and phylogeographic history of 172 red knots representing all known global breeding populations.

Prenatal Transfer of Gut Bacteria in Rock Pigeon.

Vertebrates evolved in concert with bacteria and have developed essential mutualistic relationships. Gut bacteria are vital for the postnatal development of most organs and the immune and metabolic systems and may likewise play a role during prenatal development. Prenatal transfer of gut bacteria is shown in four mammalian species, including humans.

A supergene determines highly divergent male reproductive morphs in the ruff.

Three strikingly different alternative male mating morphs (aggressive 'independents', semicooperative 'satellites' and female-mimic 'faeders') coexist as a balanced polymorphism in the ruff, Philomachus pugnax, a lek-breeding wading bird. Major differences in body size, ornamentation, and aggressive and mating behaviors are inherited as an autosomal polymorphism. We show that development into satellites and faeders is determined by a supergene consisting of divergent alternative, dominant and non-recombining haplotypes of an inversion on chromosome 11, which contains 125 predicted genes.

Genetic variation in nuclear and mitochondrial markers supports a large sex difference in lifetime reproductive skew in a lekking species.

Sex differences in skews of vertebrate lifetime reproductive success are difficult to measure directly. Evolutionary histories of differential skew should be detectable in the genome. For example, male-biased skew should reduce variation in the biparentally inherited genome relative to the maternally inherited genome.

Characterization of MHC class I in a long-distance migrant shorebird suggests multiple transcribed genes and intergenic recombination.

The major histocompatibility complex (MHC) includes highly polymorphic gene families encoding proteins crucial to the vertebrate acquired immune system. Classical MHC class I (MHCI) genes code for molecules expressed on the surfaces of most nucleated cells and are associated with defense against intracellular pathogens, such as viruses. These genes have been studied in a few wild bird species, but have not been studied in long-distance migrating shorebirds.

A novel mitochondrial gene order in shorebirds (Scolopacidae, Charadriiformes).

Although the mitochondrial genome in birds has highly conserved features, with protein genes similar to mammals and amphibians, several variations in gene order around the hypervariable control region have been found. Here we report a novel gene arrangement around the control region in shorebirds (Charadriiformes). In ruffs Philomachus pugnax, the mitochondrial genome between cytochrome b and 12SrRNA was over 1.

Characterization of polymorphic microsatellite DNA markers in the black-tailed godwit (Limosa limosa: Aves).

We isolated and tested 16 microsatellite loci in black-tailed godwits from the Netherlands (Limosa limosa limosa), and from Australasia (subspecies melanuroides). One locus was monomorphic, two loci had null-alleles and one was significantly heterozygote deficient. The remaining 12 polymorphic loci had on average 7.