| glycerol kinase activities in muscles from vertebrates and invertebrates. | 1. glycerol kinase (ec 2.7.1.30) activity was measured in crude extracts of skeletal muscles by a radiochemical method. the properties of the enzyme from a number of different muscles are very similar to those of the enzyme from rat liver. glycerol kinase from locust flight muscle was inhibited competitively by l-3-glycerophosphate with a k(i) of 4.0x10(-4)m. 2. the activity of glycerol kinase was measured in a variety of muscles from vertebrates and invertebrates in an attempt to explain the la ... | 1969 | 5801671 |
| serum "b" esterases as a nondestructive biomarker for monitoring the exposure of reptiles to organophosphorus insecticides. | a field study was conducted to validate serum b esterases as nondestructive biomarkers (ndbs) in lizards. serum butyrylcholinesterase (bche) and carboxylesterase (cbe) activities were measured in lizards and four species of birds collected in an area of 0.5 ha sprayed with 0.36 kg a.i./ha of folidol se5 (5% parathion). serum b esterase activities were determined in a total of 213 lizards (gallotia galloti) and 81 birds of four species (sylvia melanocephala, serinus canaria, parus caeruleus, and ... | 1997 | 9352213 |
| feather mites, pectoral muscle condition, wing length and plumage coloration of passerines. | i compared the feather mite (acari, proctophyllodidae) loads of moulting birds with features of the new plumage that they were growing. i examined 21 samples, each sample containing individuals of the same species, sex and age class (juvenile, yearling or adult). i used nine species: wren, troglodytes troglodytes; dunnock, prunella modularis; robin, erithacus rubecula; blue tit, parus caeruleus; great tit, p. major; chaffinch, fringilla coelebs; greenfinch, carduelis chloris; linnet, c. cannabin ... | 1999 | 10479371 |
| host specificity in avian blood parasites: a study of plasmodium and haemoproteus mitochondrial dna amplified from birds. | a fragment of the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene of avian malaria (genera haemoproteus and plasmodium) was amplified from blood samples of 12 species of passerine birds from the genera acrocephalus, phylloscopus and parus. by sequencing 478 nucleotides of the obtained fragments, we found 17 different mitochondrial haplotypes of haemoproteus or plasmodium among the 12 bird species investigated. only one out of the 17 haplotypes was found in more than one host species, this exception being a hapl ... | 2000 | 11007335 |
| can excrement and feathers of nestling songbirds be used as biomonitors for heavy metal pollution? | although birds have been frequently used as indicators of heavy metal pollution, few studies have examined pollutant levels in nestling passerines. in this paper we determined the levels of two essential (zinc and copper) and three nonessential heavy metals (lead, cadmium, and arsenic) in the excrement and feathers of great (parus major) and blue tit (parus caeruleus) nestlings at a polluted site (near a metallurgic factory) and a reference site (4 km farther east). the excrement of both great a ... | 2000 | 11031316 |
| are avian blood parasites pathogenic in the wild? a medication experiment in blue tits (parus caeruleus). | the hamilton and zuk hypothesis on haemoparasite-mediated sexual selection and certain studies of reproductive costs are based on the assumption that avian blood parasite infections are detrimental to their hosts. however, there is no experimental evidence demonstrating harmful effects of blood parasites on fitness in wild populations, it even having been suggested that they may be non-pathogenic. only an experimental manipulation of natural blood parasite loads may reveal their harmful effects. ... | 2000 | 11197126 |
| aromatic plants in bird nests as a protection against blood-sucking flying insects? | the nest protection hypothesis suggests that some of the fresh plant material, brought by some bird species to their nests, contain secondary compounds that repel parasites or mask the chemical cues that parasites use to find the host. corsican blue tits (parus caeruleus) bring pieces of several species of aromatic plants to the nest at dusk, suggesting a protection against nocturnal agents such as blood-sucking flying insects. the potential repellent or masking effect of these aromatic plant sp ... | 2001 | 11672937 |
| the distribution of octachlorostyrene (ocs) in environmental samples from europe. | although octachlorostyrene (ocs) was never used as a commercial product, it may be produced during incineration and combustion processes involving chlorinated compounds. its environmental spreading was evaluated through the analysis of several representative samples. ocs could not be measured in soil samples collected from urban and rural areas or sediments, but was present (up to 5.41 ng/g dry weight) in industrial soil collected near chemically polluted areas. for aquatic biota samples, the oc ... | 2003 | 12948238 |
| changes in haemoproteus sex ratios: fertility insurance or differential sex lifespan? | there is little direct evidence of the fitness effects of changes in malaria gametocyte sex ratio. gametocyte sex ratios in haemospororin parasites (phylum apicomplexa) are usually female skewed. however, in some cases and especially in haemoproteus parasites, less female-biased and even male-biased sex ratios are encountered. the 'fertility insurance hypothesis' tries to explain these biases as an evolutionary strategy to facilitate gamete encounter. thus, the hypothesis predicts that, if there ... | 2004 | 15306307 |
| habitat quality as a predictor of spatial variation in blue tit reproductive performance: a multi-plot analysis in a heterogeneous landscape. | vertebrate studies have rarely investigated the influence of spatial variation in habitat richness on both short-term (breeding) and long-term (offspring recruitment) reproductive performance using simultaneously multi-patch, multi-habitat type and multi-year approaches at landscape level. here we present results of such an approach using the influence of two oak tree (quercus ilex, q. humilis) species on reproductive performance in corsican blue tits (parus caeruleus ogliastrae) as a model syst ... | 2004 | 15549399 |
| do sibling tits (parus major, p. caeruleus) disperse over similar distances and in similar directions? | we studied dispersal movements by sibling pairs of great tits, parus major, and blue tits, p. caeruleus, in a patchy environment, in order to test whether siblings are more similar in dispersal than expected by chance. because of possible common environmental effects due to the heterogeneity and finiteness of the study area, we compared the similarity among siblings with the similarity between each sibling and an unrelated bird that fledged in the same patch and year, as close to the siblings' n ... | 2004 | 15578228 |
| colonisation and diversification of the blue tits (parus caeruleus teneriffae-group) in the canary islands. | the blue tit (parus caeruleus teneriffae group) is proposed to have colonised the canary islands from north africa according to an east-to-west stepping stone model, and today, the species group is divided into four subspecies, differing in morphological, acoustic, and ecological characters. this colonisation hypothesis was tested and the population structure between and within the islands studied using mitochondrial dna sequences of the non-coding and relatively fast evolving control region. ou ... | 2005 | 15683925 |
| evaluation of biochemical effects related to perfluorooctane sulfonic acid exposure in organohalogen-contaminated great tit (parus major) and blue tit (parus caeruleus) nestlings. | a perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (pfos) biomonitoring survey was conducted on great tit (parus major) and blue tit (parus caeruleus) nestlings from blokkersdijk, a bird reserve in the proximity of a fluorochemical plant in antwerp (belgium) and fort iv, a control area. pfos, together with 11 organochlorine pesticides, 20 polychlorinated biphenyl congeners and 7 polybrominated diphenyl ethers were measured in liver tissue. the hepatic pfos concentrations at blokkersdijk (86-2788 and 317-3322 ng/g ... | 2005 | 15982707 |
| suttonella ornithocola sp. nov., from birds of the tit families, and emended description of the genus suttonella. | phenotypic and phylogenetic studies were performed on three strains of gram-negative, rod-shaped organisms recovered from dead birds of the tit families (blue tit, coal tit and long-tailed tit). morphological, cultural and biochemical studies indicated that the organisms were related to the family cardiobacteriaceae in the gamma-subclass of the proteobacteria. comparative 16s rrna gene sequencing studies confirmed these findings and demonstrated that the bacterium represents a hitherto unknown s ... | 2005 | 16280481 |
| effect of human presence and handling on circulating corticosterone levels in breeding blue tits (parus caeruleus). | birds may react to the presence of humans with an immediate primary behavioural reaction and with physiological responses, such as the activation of the hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal axis. this study investigates the suite of behavioural and adrenocortical responses to the presence of humans and to handling in two subspecies of blue tits parus caeruleus, a small hole-nesting passerine, during the period of feeding their nestlings. the first aim was to investigate whether the presence of humans n ... | 2006 | 16581070 |
| no evidence for avian malaria infection during the nestling phase in a passerine bird. | one of many uncertainties concerning the epidemiology of avian malaria in wild bird populations is the age at first infection. while nestlings, being naked and presumably immunologically naïve would seem a likely stage of first infection, most age-stratified prevalence studies have not examined the nestling cohort, whereas those that have use relatively insensitive blood smear examination to diagnose infection. in the study presented here, we used sensitive nested polymerase chain reaction metho ... | 2006 | 17304811 |
| molecular characterization of the 18s rdna gene of an avian hepatozoon reveals that it is closely related to lankesterella. | as a part of intensive study of blood parasite infections in a population of the passerine bird blue tit (cyanistes caeruleus, paridae), we detected a parasite species that, based on its morphological similarity, was tentatively identified as hepatozoon parus, the only species of this parasite genus described from birds of this family. however, morphological measurements show that h. parus is slightly larger than the parasite detected in our population. a molecular characterization of the parasi ... | 2006 | 17304816 |
| the chicken host peptides, gallinacins 4, 7, and 9 have antimicrobial activity against salmonella serovars. | the gallinacin genes clustered on chromosome 3 of the chicken (gallus gallus domesticus) genome encode a group of cationic antimicrobial peptides characteristic of the beta-defensins. in this study, gallinacins 4, 7, and 9, all predicted to contain the conserved pattern of cysteines typical of beta-defensins but differing in their charge and hydrophobicity, were characterised for their in vivo gene expression patterns and in vitro antimicrobial activities against salmonella serovars. reverse-tra ... | 2007 | 17346671 |
| within-population variation in prevalence and lineage distribution of avian malaria in blue tits, cyanistes caeruleus. | the development of molecular genetic screening techniques for avian blood parasites has revealed many novel aspects of their ecology, including greatly elevated diversity and complex host-parasite relationships. many previous studies of malaria in birds have treated single study populations as spatially homogeneous with respect to the likelihood of transmission of malaria to hosts, and we have very little idea whether any spatial heterogeneity influences different malaria lineages similarly. her ... | 2007 | 17651202 |
| genomics of natural bird populations: a gene-based set of reference markers evenly spread across the avian genome. | although there is growing interest to take genomics into the complex realms of natural populations, there is a general shortage of genomic resources and tools available for wild species. this applies not at least to birds, for which genomic approaches should be helpful to questions such as adaptation, speciation and population genetics. in this study, we describe a genome-wide reference set of conserved avian gene markers, broadly applicable across birds. by aligning protein-coding sequences fro ... | 2008 | 17927703 |
| seasonal variation in plasmodium prevalence in a population of blue tits cyanistes caeruleus. | 1. seasonal variation in environmental conditions is ubiquitous and can affect the spread of infectious diseases. understanding seasonal patterns of disease incidence can help to identify mechanisms, such as the demography of hosts and vectors, which influence parasite transmission dynamics. 2. we examined seasonal variation in plasmodium infection in a blue tit cyanistes caeruleus population over 3 years using sensitive molecular diagnostic techniques, in light of beaudoin et al.'s (1971; journ ... | 2008 | 18312339 |
| widespread and structured distributions of blood parasite haplotypes across a migratory divide of the swainson's thrush (catharus ustulatus). | we examined the phylogenetic distribution of cytochrome b haplotypes of the avian blood parasite genera haemoproteus and plasmodium across the migratory divide of the swainson's thrush (catharus ustulatus) in british columbia, canada. from 87 host individuals, we identified 8 parasite haplotypes; 4 of plasmodium and 4 of haemoproteus. six haplotypes were novel; 1 haemoproteus haplotype was identical to h. majoris found in the blue tit (parus caeruleus) in sweden, and another halotype was identic ... | 2007 | 18314697 |
| determinants of abundance and effects of blood-sucking flying insects in the nest of a hole-nesting bird. | compared to non-flying nest-dwelling ectoparasites, the biology of most species of flying ectoparasites and its potential impact on avian hosts is poorly known and rarely, if ever, reported. in this study we explore for the first time the factors that may affect biting midge (diptera: ceratopogonidae) and black fly (diptera: simuliidae) abundances in the nest cavity of a bird, the hole-nesting blue tit cyanistes caeruleus, and report their effects on adults and nestlings during reproduction. the ... | 2008 | 18317817 |
| serologic survey of birds for west nile flavivirus in southern moravia (czech republic). | a serosurvey for west nile virus (wnv) was carried out in 54 domestic birds (geese and ducks bred on fishponds) and 391 wild birds representing 28 migratory and resident species, using a plaque-reduction neutralization microtest with vero cells and egyptian topotype eg-101 strain as test virus. the birds were sampled in the south-moravian fishpond ecosystem between 2004 and 2006. antibodies to wnv were not detected in domestic waterfowl, but 23 (5.9%) free-living birds of 10 species showed a pos ... | 2008 | 18454599 |
| cuckoo-hawk mimicry? an experimental test. | the similarity between many old world parasitic cuckoos (cuculinae) and accipiter hawks, in size, shape and plumage, has been noted since ancient times. in particular, hawk-like underpart barring is more prevalent in parasitic than in non-parasitic cuckoos. cuckoo-hawk resemblance may reflect convergent evolution of cryptic plumage that reduces detection by hosts and prey, or evolved mimicry of hawks by parasitic cuckoos, either for protection against hawk attacks or to facilitate brood parasiti ... | 2008 | 18467298 |
| investigation on the frequency of chlamydia sp. infections in tits (paridae). | a total of 788 cloacal and pharyngeal swabs were taken from 399 free-living, clinically healthy tits. ten nestlings were examined by cloacal swabs only. additionally, six dead tits were necropsied and various organs were collected for testing. all swabs and organ samples were tested for chlamydia chlamydia sp. was detected by immunofluorescence with fitc-conjugated monoclonal antibodies after 90 h incubation on buffalo-green-monkey (bgm) cell cultures at 37 degrees c. fifty-four per cent of 399 ... | 1997 | 18483944 |
| maximum host survival at intermediate parasite infection intensities. | although parasitism has been acknowledged as an important selective force in the evolution of host life histories, studies of fitness effects of parasites in wild populations have yielded mixed results. one reason for this may be that most studies only test for a linear relationship between infection intensity and host fitness. if resistance to parasites is costly, however, fitness may be reduced both for hosts with low infection intensities (cost of resistance) and high infection intensities (c ... | 2008 | 18560544 |
| optical properties of the uropygial gland secretion: no evidence for uv cosmetics in birds. | ultraviolet (uv) reflectance of the plumage is common in birds and plays an important role in sexual signalling. recently, it has been proposed that birds are able to modify plumage uv reflectance by the application of uropygial gland secretion. based on a survey of the optical properties of this secretion from 51 species belonging to 12 avian orders, we show that two main types of uropygial secretions exist, one predominantly found in passerines and one in non-passerines, both reducing relative ... | 2008 | 18560743 |
| avian olfactory receptor gene repertoires: evidence for a well-developed sense of smell in birds? | among vertebrates, the sense of smell is mediated by olfactory receptors (ors) expressed in sensory neurons within the olfactory epithelium. comparative genomic studies suggest that the olfactory acuity of mammalian species correlates positively with both the total number and the proportion of functional or genes encoded in their genomes. in contrast to mammals, avian olfaction is poorly understood, with birds widely regarded as relying primarily on visual and auditory inputs. here, we show that ... | 2008 | 18628122 |
| eggshell pigmentation pattern in relation to breeding performance of blue tits cyanistes caeruleus. | 1. we test the consequences, in terms of breeding success and parental effort, of eggshell pigmentation pattern in a hole-nesting bird, the blue tit cyanistes caeruleus that lays eggs asymmetrically speckled with reddish spots (maculated eggs). 2. we assess the effect of distribution of spots (pigment 'spread') and spot size and pigment intensity (pigment 'darkness') on eggshell physical properties and breeding parameters concerning nestling condition, investment of parents in offspring care and ... | 2009 | 18761537 |
| search for informative polymorphisms in candidate genes: clock genes and circadian behaviour in blue tits. | the identification of functional polymorphisms in genes that underlie behavioural trait variation is a challenging but intriguing task in evolutionary biology. given the wealth of genomic data and the increasing number of genotype-phenotype association studies in model organisms, one can ask whether and how this information can be used for non-model organisms. here we describe two strategies to search for likely functional polymorphisms in candidate genes in a bird species that has been intensiv ... | 2009 | 18792794 |
| chromaticity in the uv/blue range facilitates the search for achromatically background-matching prey in birds. | a large variety of predatory species rely on their visual abilities to locate their prey. however, the search for prey may be hampered by prey camouflage. the most prominent example of concealing coloration is background-matching prey coloration characterized by a strong visual resemblance of prey to the background. even though this principle of camouflage was recognized to efficiently work in predator avoidance a long time ago, the underlying mechanisms are not very well known. in this study, w ... | 2009 | 19000974 |
| rearing environment effects on immune defence in blue tit cyanistes caeruleus nestlings. | rearing conditions may influence ontogeny and functioning of the immune system. activation of different mechanisms involved in host disease resistance and their internal regulation can be affected by intrinsic and extrinsic factors influencing development. i investigated how rearing environment can influence associations between humoral and cellular constituents of immune defence in nestling blue tits (cyanistes caeruleus). the ability to mount a cell-mediated immune response was estimated as a ... | 2009 | 19132405 |
| patterns and dynamics of rest-phase hypothermia in wild and captive blue tits during winter. | we evaluated biotic and abiotic predictors of rest-phase hypothermia in wintering blue tits (cyanistes caeruleus) and also assessed how food availability influences nightly thermoregulation. on any given night, captive blue tits (with unrestricted access to food) remained largely homeothermic, whereas free-ranging birds decreased their body temperature (t(b)) by about 5 degrees c. this was not an effect of increased stress in the aviary as we found no difference in circulating corticosterone bet ... | 2009 | 19352685 |
| maternal effects contribute to the superior performance of extra-pair offspring. | the explanation for extra-pair mating in female birds remains poorly understood and contentious [1-7]. several leading hypotheses propose that females benefit indirectly by enhancing the genetic quality of their offspring, through good genes or genetic compatibility effects [1, 8, 9]. supporting this idea, recent studies have identified a range of fitness-related traits for which extra-pair offspring (epo) are superior to their within-pair (wp) half-siblings [10-21]. however, such performance di ... | 2009 | 19409787 |
| stress hormone dynamics: an adaptation to migration? | the hormone corticosterone (cort) is an important component of a bird's response to environmental stress, but it can also have negative effects. therefore, birds on migration are hypothesized to have repressed stress responses (migration-modulation hypothesis). in contrast to earlier studies on long-distance migrants, we evaluate this hypothesis in a population containing both migratory and resident individuals. we use a population of partially migratory blue tits (cyanistes caeruleus) in southe ... | 2009 | 19429650 |
| factors affecting culicoides species composition and abundance in avian nests. | mechanisms affecting patterns of vector distribution among host individuals may influence the population and evolutionary dynamics of vectors, hosts and the parasites transmitted. we studied the role of different factors affecting the species composition and abundance of culicoides found in nests of the blue tit (cyanistes caeruleus). we identified 1531 females and 2 males of 7 different culicoides species in nests, with c. simulator being the most abundant species, followed by c. kibunensis, c. ... | 2009 | 19523254 |
| solar activity affects avian timing of reproduction. | avian timing of reproduction is strongly affected by ambient temperature. here we show that there is an additional effect of sunspots on laying date, from five long-term population studies of great and blue tits (parus major and cyanistes caeruleus), demonstrating for the first time that solar activity not only has an effect on population numbers but that it also affects the timing of animal behaviour. this effect is statistically independent of ambient temperature. in years with few sunspots, b ... | 2009 | 19574283 |
| avian genome evolution: insights from a linkage map of the blue tit (cyanistes caeruleus). | we provide a first-generation linkage map of the blue tit (cyanistes caeruleus), a passerine within the previously genetically uncharacterized family paridae, which includes 91 orthologous loci with a single anchored position in the chicken (gallus gallus) sequence assembly. the map consists of 18 linkage groups and covers 935 cm. there was highly conserved synteny between blue tit and chicken with the exception of a split on chromosome 1, potential splits on chromosome 4 and the translocation o ... | 2010 | 19707235 |
| lack of resistance against the tick ixodes ricinus in two related passerine bird species. | although many wild bird species may act as reservoir hosts for tick-transmitted diseases and/or support long-distance dispersal of infected ticks, to date no research has been done on the extent to which songbirds may acquire resistance to ixodid ticks. here we investigate whether two passerine species belonging to the family paridae, the blue tit (cyanistes caeruleus) and the great tit (parus major), are able to acquire resistance after repeated infestations with ixodes ricinus nymphs. as blue ... | 2010 | 19747483 |
| intraspecific variation and interspecific differences in the bacterial and fungal assemblages of blue tit (cyanistes caeruleus) and great tit (parus major) nests. | although interest in the relationship between birds and microorganisms is increasing, few studies have compared nest microbial assemblages in wild passerines to determine variation within and between species. culturing microorganisms from blue tit (cyanistes caeruleus) and great tit (parus major) nests from the same study site demonstrated diverse microbial communities with 32 bacterial and 13 fungal species being isolated. dominant bacteria were pseudomonas fluorescens, pseudomonas putida, and ... | 2010 | 19830477 |
| evidence for adaptive evolution of olfactory receptor genes in 9 bird species. | it has been suggested that positive selection, in particular selection favoring a change in the protein sequence, plays a role in the evolution of olfactory receptor (or) gene repertoires in fish and mammals. ors are 7-transmembrane domain (tm) proteins, members of the g-protein-coupled receptor superfamily in vertebrate genomes, and responsible for odorant binding and discrimination. or gene repertoires in birds are surprisingly large and diverse, suggesting that birds have a keen olfactory sen ... | 2010 | 19965911 |
| spring vegetation phenology is a robust predictor of breeding date across broad landscapes: a multi-site approach using the corsican blue tit (cyanistes caeruleus). | the regulation of reproductive schedules is an important determinant of avian breeding success. in heterogeneous environments, the optimal breeding period may fluctuate temporally across habitats, often on a spatial scale much shorter than the average dispersal range of individuals. the synchronisation of reproductive events with the most favourable period at a given site therefore involves the integration of a suite of fine-scale environmental signals which contain information about future bree ... | 2010 | 20035434 |
| chronic malaria infections increase family inequalities and reduce parental fitness: experimental evidence from a wild bird population. | avian malaria parasites (plasmodium) occur commonly in wild birds and are an increasingly popular model system for understanding host-parasite co-evolution. however, whether these parasites have fitness consequences for hosts in endemic areas is much debated, particularly since wild-caught individuals almost always harbour chronic infections of very low parasite density. we used the anti-malarial drug malarone to test experimentally for fitness effects of chronic malaria infection in a wild popu ... | 2010 | 20070458 |
| can eggs in a cavity be a female secondary sexual signal? male nest visits and modelling of egg visual discrimination in blue tits. | eggshell colouration is thought to function as a female-specific secondary sexual trait. while tests of this idea are rapidly accumulating in cavity-nesting birds, some fundamental underlying assumptions remain rarely investigated: namely, can males see eggshell coloration and perceive colour differences between the eggs of different females? we tested these two key assumptions in a natural population of blue tits (cyanistes caeruleus). using transponders, we tracked male nest visits and found t ... | 2010 | 20164078 |
| first report of epizootic trichomoniasis in wild finches (family fringillidae) in southern fennoscandia. | forty-one outbreaks of mortality in wild finches were reported in southern norway, sweden, and finland in the second half of 2008 (n = 40) and in february 2009 (n = 1). greenfinches (carduelis chloris) and occasional chaffinches (fringilla coelebs) primarily were affected. forty-eight greenfinches, eight chaffinches, one hawfinch (coccothraustes coccothraustes), and one blue tit (parus caeruleus) from 22 incidents were examined postmortem. birds were in poor nutritional condition and had necroti ... | 2010 | 20408413 |
| context-dependent effects of parental effort on malaria infection in a wild bird population, and their role in reproductive trade-offs. | although trade-offs between reproductive effort and other fitness components are frequently documented in wild populations, the underlying physiological mechanisms remain poorly understood. parasitism has been suggested to mediate reproductive trade-offs, yet only a limited number of parasite taxa have been studied, and reproductive effort-induced changes in parasitism are rarely linked to trade-offs observed in the same population. we conducted a brood size manipulation experiment in blue tits ... | 2010 | 20625768 |
| molecular epidemiology of malaria prevalence and parasitaemia in a wild bird population. | avian malaria (plasmodium spp.) and other blood parasitic infections of birds constitute increasingly popular model systems in ecological and evolutionary host-parasite studies. field studies of these parasites commonly use two traits in hypothesis testing: infection status (or prevalence at the population level) and parasitaemia, yet the causes of variation in these traits remain poorly understood. here, we use quantitative pcr to investigate fine-scale environmental and host predictors of mala ... | 2010 | 21073677 |
| fitness effects of endemic malaria infections in a wild bird population: the importance of ecological structure. | 1. parasites can have important effects on host populations influencing either fecundity or mortality, but understanding the magnitude of these effects in endemic host-parasite systems is challenging and requires an understanding of ecological processes affecting both host and parasite. 2. avian blood parasites (haemoproteus and plasmodium) have been much studied, but the effects of these parasites on hosts in areas where they are endemic remains poorly known. 3. we used a multistate modelling f ... | 2011 | 21426343 |
| a genome-wide set of 106 microsatellite markers for the blue tit (cyanistes caeruleus). | we have characterized a set of 106 microsatellite markers in 26-127 individual blue tits (cyanistes caeruleus), and assigned their location on the zebra finch (taeniopygia guttata) and on the chicken (gallus gallus) genome on the basis of sequence homology. thirty-one markers are newly designed from zebra finch est (expressed sequence tags) sequences, 22 markers were developed by others from est sequences using different methods and the remaining 53 loci were previously designed or modified pass ... | 2010 | 21565051 |
| the importance of ixodes arboricola in transmission of rickettsia spp., anaplasma phagocytophilum, and borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato in the czech republic, central europe. | abstract wild birds are known to be a reservoir of infectious disease agents and disseminatory hosts of ticks. the purpose of this work was to obtain information about the occurrence of rickettsial, anaplasmal, and borrelial infections in some ticks that parasitize wild birds in the czech republic. a total of 549 subadult ticks of three species ixodes arboricola (75.0%), ixodes ricinus (23.1%), and haemaphysalis concinna (1.8%) were collected from 20 species of birds (passeriformes). rickettsiae ... | 2011 | 21612531 |
| do secretions from the uropygial gland of birds attract biting midges and black flies? | bird susceptibility to attacks by blood-sucking flying insects could be influenced by urogypial gland secretions. to determine the effect of these secretions on biting midges and black flies, we set up a series of tests. first, we placed uropygial gland secretions from blue tit cyanistes caeruleus broods inside empty nest boxes while empty nest boxes without gland secretions were treated as controls. blue tit broods, from which we had obtained uropygial secretions, were affected by biting midges ... | 2011 | 21614548 |
| opportunistic nectar-feeding birds are effective pollinators of bird-flowers from canary islands: experimental evidence from isoplexis canariensis (scrophulariaceae). | insular floras, characterized by simple pollination networks, sometimes include novel mutualistic agents such as nonspecialist nectarivores. in this study we confirmed the effective pollination of isoplexis canariensis by opportunistic nectar-feeding birds in tenerife, canary islands, spain. this plant is among the ornithophilous species of the canarian flora that lack past and present specialist nectarivorous birds. experimental hand pollinations revealed self-compatibility, but cross-pollinate ... | 2008 | 21628148 |
| Infection dynamics of endemic malaria in a wild bird population: parasite species-dependent drivers of spatial and temporal variation in transmission rates. | 1. Investigating the ecological context in which host-parasite interactions occur and the roles of biotic and abiotic factors in forcing infection dynamics is essential to understanding disease transmission, spread and maintenance. 2. Despite their prominence as model host-pathogen systems, the relative influence of environmental heterogeneity and host characteristics in influencing the infection dynamics of avian blood parasites has rarely been assessed in the wild, particularly at a within-pop ... | 2011 | 21848864 |
| a multi-gene approach reveals a complex evolutionary history in the cyanistes species group. | quaternary climatic oscillations have been considered decisive in shaping much of the phylogeographic structure around the mediterranean basin. within this paradigm, peripheral islands are usually considered as the endpoints of the colonization processes. here, we use nuclear and mitochondrial markers to investigate the phylogeography of the blue tit complex (blue tit cyanistes caeruleus, canary blue tit c. teneriffae and azure tit c. cyanus), and assess the role of the canary islands for the ge ... | 2011 | 21880092 |
| transmission dynamics of borrelia burgdorferi s.l. in a bird tick community. | we examined the borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato circulation in a tick community consisting of three species (ixodes ricinus, i. frontalis, i. arboricola) with contrasting ecologies, but sharing two european songbird hosts (parus major and cyanistes caeruleus). parus major had the highest infestation rates, primarily due to larger numbers of i. ricinus, and probably because of their greater low-level foraging. the prevalence of borrelia in feeding ticks did not significantly differ between the tw ... | 2012 | 23279105 |
| avian feathers as bioindicators of the exposure to heavy metal contamination of food. | the aim of this study was to determine the possibility of using feathers of blue tit nestlings to assess the level of endogenous accumulation of lead. for this purpose we conducted an experiment with lead application to randomly chosen nestlings from eight randomly drawn broods. five days after the exposure, feathers of lead-treated nestlings had significantly higher lead concentrations than control nestlings. this result suggests that feathers can be used as reliable non-destructive bioindicato ... | 2013 | 23912228 |
| life history correlates of fecal bacterial species richness in a wild population of the blue tit cyanistes caeruleus. | very little is known about the normal gastrointestinal flora of wild birds, or how it might affect or reflect the host's life-history traits. the aim of this study was to survey the species richness of bacteria in the feces of a wild population of blue tits cyanistes caeruleus and to explore the relationships between bacterial species richness and various life-history traits, such as age, sex, and reproductive success. using pcr-tgge, 55 operational taxonomic units (otus) were identified in blue ... | 2015 | 25750710 |
| mhc-i affects infection intensity but not infection status with a frequent avian malaria parasite in blue tits. | host resistance against parasites depends on three aspects: the ability to prevent, control and clear infections. in vertebrates the immune system consists of innate and adaptive immunity. innate immunity is particularly important for preventing infection and eradicating established infections at an early stage while adaptive immunity is slow, but powerful, and essential for controlling infection intensities and eventually clearing infections. major histocompatibility complex (mhc) molecules are ... | 2013 | 24023631 |
| population genetic structure of the tree-hole tick ixodes arboricola (acari: ixodidae) at different spatial scales. | the endophilic tick ixodes arboricola infests cavity-nesting birds, and its dispersal strongly depends on the movements of its host. population genetic structure of i. arboricola was studied with seven polymorphic microsatellite markers. we collected 268 ticks from 76 nest boxes in four woodlots near antwerp, belgium. these nest boxes are mainly used by the principal hosts of i. arboricola, the great tit parus major and the blue tit cyanistes caeruleus. as these birds typically return to the sam ... | 2014 | 24781806 |
| chlamydiosis in british garden birds (2005-2011): retrospective diagnosis and chlamydia psittaci genotype determination. | the significance of chlamydiosis as a cause of mortality in wild passerines (order passeriformes), and the role of these birds as a potential source of zoonotic chlamydia psittaci infection, is unknown. we reviewed wild bird mortality incidents (2005-2011). where species composition or post-mortem findings were indicative of chlamydiosis, we examined archived tissues for c. psittaci infection using pcr and arraytube microarray assays. twenty-one of 40 birds tested positive: 8 dunnocks (prunella ... | 2014 | 24947738 |
| individual genetic diversity and probability of infection by avian malaria parasites in blue tits (cyanistes caeruleus). | understanding the importance of host genetic diversity for coping with parasites and infectious diseases is a long-standing goal in evolutionary biology. here, we study the association between probability of infection by avian malaria (plasmodium relictum) and individual genetic diversity in three blue tit (cyanistes caeruleus) populations that strongly differ in prevalence of this parasite. for this purpose, we screened avian malaria infections and genotyped 789 blue tits across 26 microsatelli ... | 2014 | 25264126 |
| dispersal in a patchy landscape reveals contrasting determinants of infection in a wild avian malaria system. | understanding exactly when, where and how hosts become infected with parasites is critical to understanding host-parasite co-evolution in natural populations. however, for host-parasite systems in which hosts or parasites are mobile, for example in vector-borne diseases, the spatial location of infection and the relative importance of parasite exposure at successive host life-history stages are often uncertain. here, using a 6-year longitudinal data set from a spatially referenced population of ... | 2014 | 24117384 |
| molecular characterization of avian malaria parasites in three mediterranean blue tit (cyanistes caeruleus) populations. | we genetically analysed malaria parasites (protozoa) in three mediterranean blue tit (cyanistes caeruleus) populations from central spain. a total of 853 breeding individuals were screened for parasites of the genera plasmodium and haemoproteus using a very efficient polymerase chain reaction approach that amplifies a partial segment of the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene of these parasites. we have found six lineages of plasmodium (sgs1, grw11, coll1, delurb4, grw04 and bluti10) parasitizing th ... | 2012 | 22855242 |
| molecular characterization of 'candidatus rickettsia vini' in ixodes arboricola from the czech republic and slovakia. | the aim of this study was to analyze the prevalence of rickettsiae in the tree-hole tick ixodes arboricola in the czech republic and slovakia. during may to september of 2009 and 2013, bird boxes belonging to three different areas were screened for ticks. in total, 454 nestlings and 109 nests of 10 hole-breeding bird species were examined. ticks were found on ficedula albicollis, parus major, cyanistes caeruleus and sitta europaea and/or in their nests. in total, 166 ticks (17 nymphs, 10 males a ... | 2015 | 25769386 |
| the relevance of food peak architecture in trophic interactions. | phenological shifts and associated changes in the temporal match between trophic levels have been a major focus of the study of ecological consequences of climate change. previously, the food peak has been thought to respond as an entity to warming temperatures. however, food peak architecture, that is, timings and abundances of prey species and the level of synchrony between them, determines the timing and shape of the food peak. we demonstrate this with a case example of three passerine prey s ... | 2016 | 26527602 |
| ultraviolet sensitivity and colour vision in raptor foraging. | raptors have excellent vision, yet it is unclear how they use colour information. it has been suggested that raptors use ultraviolet (uv) reflections from vole urine to find good hunting grounds. in contrast, uv plumage colours in songbirds such as blue tits are assumed to be 'hidden' communication signals, inconspicuous to raptors. this ambiguity results from a lack of knowledge about raptor ocular media transmittance, which sets the limit for uv sensitivity. we measured ocular media transmitta ... | 2013 | 23785106 |
| characterization of mhc-i in the blue tit (cyanistes caeruleus) reveals low levels of genetic diversity and trans-population evolution across european populations. | the major histcompatibility complex (mhc) is a vital component of the adaptive immune system in all vertebrates. this study is the first to characterize mhc class i (mhc-i) in blue tits (cyanistes caeruleus), and we use mhc-i exon 3 sequence data from individuals originating from three locations across europe: spain, the netherlands to sweden. our phylogeny of the 17 blue tit mhc-i alleles contains one allele cluster with low nucleotide diversity compared to the remaining more diverse alleles. w ... | 2011 | 21559782 |
| predicting bird phenology from space: satellite-derived vegetation green-up signal uncovers spatial variation in phenological synchrony between birds and their environment. | population-level studies of how tit species (parus spp.) track the changing phenology of their caterpillar food source have provided a model system allowing inference into how populations can adjust to changing climates, but are often limited because they implicitly assume all individuals experience similar environments. ecologists are increasingly using satellite-derived data to quantify aspects of animals' environments, but so far studies examining phenology have generally done so at large spa ... | 2015 | 26640682 |
| conserved g-matrices of morphological and life-history traits among continental and island blue tit populations. | the genetic variance-covariance matrix (g-matrix) summarizes the genetic architecture of multiple traits. it has a central role in the understanding of phenotypic divergence and the quantification of the evolutionary potential of populations. laboratory experiments have shown that g-matrices can vary rapidly under divergent selective pressures. however, because of the demanding nature of g-matrix estimation and comparison in wild populations, the extent of its spatial variability remains largely ... | 2017 | 28402327 |
| can video playback provide social information for foraging blue tits? | video playback is becoming a common method for manipulating social stimuli in experiments. parid tits are one of the most commonly studied groups of wild birds. however, it is not yet clear if tits respond to video playback or how their behavioural responses should be measured. behaviours may also differ depending on what they observe demonstrators encountering. here we present blue tits (cyanistes caeruleus) videos of demonstrators discovering palatable or aversive prey (injected with bitter-ta ... | 2017 | 28344901 |
| to graze or gorge: consistency and flexibility of individual foraging tactics in tits. | an individual's foraging behaviour and time allocated to feeding have direct consequences for its fitness. despite much research on population-level foraging decisions, few studies have investigated individual differences in fine-scale daily foraging patterns amongst wild animals. here, we explore the consistency and plasticity of feeding tactics of individual great tits (parus major) and blue tits (cyanistes caeruleus), using a grid of 65 automated feeding stations in a 385-ha woodland, during ... | 2017 | 28191628 |
| the strength of the association between heterozygosity and probability of interannual local recruitment increases with environmental harshness in blue tits. | the extent of inbreeding depression and the magnitude of heterozygosity-fitness correlations (hfc) have been suggested to depend on the environmental context in which they are assayed, but little evidence is available for wild populations. we combine extensive molecular and capture-mark-recapture data from a blue tit (cyanistes caeruleus) population to (1) analyze the relationship between heterozygosity and probability of interannual adult local recruitment and (2) test whether environmental str ... | 2016 | 28035274 |
| hatching asynchrony vs. foraging efficiency: the response to food availability in specialist vs. generalist tit species. | breeding mistiming is increasingly frequent in several ecosystems in the face of current climate change. species belonging to higher trophic levels must employ mechanisms to reduce it. one of these mechanisms is hatching asynchrony, with the eggs in a clutch hatching over a period of several days. some authors have suggested it to be adaptive when food is unpredictable. however, these birds can also suffer associated costs. we tested whether a species with higher foraging efficiency avoid hatchi ... | 2016 | 27892941 |
| human disturbance during early life impairs nestling growth in birds inhabiting a nature recreation area. | nature recreation conflicts with conservation, but its impacts on wildlife are not fully understood. where recreation is not regulated, visitors to natural areas may gather in large numbers on weekends and holidays. this may increase variance in fitness in wild populations, if individuals whose critical life cycle stages coincide with periods of high human disturbance are at a disadvantage. we studied nestling development of blue tits (cyanistes caeruleus) in a natural area where recreation acti ... | 2016 | 27851816 |
| effects of extreme thermal conditions on plasticity in breeding phenology and double-broodedness of great tits and blue tits in central poland in 2013 and 2014. | many avian species in europe breed earlier as a result of higher temperatures caused by global climate changes. climate change means not only higher temperatures but also more frequent extreme weather events, sometimes contrasting with the long-term trends. it was suggested that we should look closely at every extreme phenomenon and its consequences for the phenology of organisms. examining the limits of phenotypic plasticity may be an important goal for future research. extremely low spring tem ... | 2016 | 26983847 |
| energy reserves, information need and a pinch of personality determine decision-making on route in partially migratory blue tits. | in facultative partial migrants some individuals in a population are migratory and others are resident and individuals decide each year anew which strategy to choose. while the proportion of birds migrating is in part determined by environmental conditions and competitive abilities, the timing of individual departure and behaviours on route are little understood. individuals encounter different environmental conditions when migrating earlier or later. based on cost/ benefit considerations we tes ... | 2016 | 27732602 |
| colour ornamentation in the blue tit: quantitative genetic (co)variances across sexes. | although secondary sexual traits are commonly more developed in males than females, in many animal species females also display elaborate ornaments or weaponry. indirect selection on correlated traits in males and/or direct sexual or social selection in females are hypothesized to drive the evolution and maintenance of female ornaments. yet, the relative roles of these evolutionary processes remain unidentified, because little is known about the genetic correlation that might exist between the o ... | 2017 | 27577691 |
| interspecific variation in the relationship between clutch size, laying date and intensity of urbanization in four species of hole-nesting birds. | the increase in size of human populations in urban and agricultural areas has resulted in considerable habitat conversion globally. such anthropogenic areas have specific environmental characteristics, which influence the physiology, life history, and population dynamics of plants and animals. for example, the date of bud burst is advanced in urban compared to nearby natural areas. in some birds, breeding success is determined by synchrony between timing of breeding and peak food abundance. pert ... | 2016 | 27547364 |
| the effect of ambient temperature, habitat quality and individual age on incubation behaviour and incubation feeding in a socially monogamous songbird. | incubation is an important aspect of avian life history. the behaviour is energetically costly, and investment in incubation strategies within species, like female nest attentiveness and the feeding by the non-incubating partner during incubation, can therefore vary depending on environmental and individual characteristics. however, little is known about the combined effect of these characteristics. we investigated the importance of ambient temperature, habitat quality, and bird age on female in ... | 2017 | 27546954 |
| local weather conditions have complex effects on the growth of blue tit nestlings. | adverse weather conditions are expected to result in impaired nestling development in birds, but empirical studies have provided equivocal support for such a relationship. this may be because the negative effects of adverse weather conditions are masked by parental effects. globally, ambient temperatures, rainfall levels and wind speeds are all expected to increase in a changing climate and so there is a need for a better understanding of the relationship between weather conditions and nestling ... | 2016 | 27503711 |
| through experience to boldness? deactivation of neophobia towards novel and aposematic prey in three european species of tits (paridae). | european tits (paridae) exhibit species-specific levels of initial wariness towards aposematic prey. this wariness may be caused by neophobia, dietary conservatism or innate bias against particular prey traits. we assessed the contribution of these three mechanisms to the behaviour of juvenile tits towards novel palatable prey and novel aposematic prey. we compared levels of initial wariness in great tits (parus major), blue tits (cyanistes caeruleus) and coal tits (periparus ater), and tested h ... | 2016 | 27474371 |
| brood size constrains the development of endothermy in blue tits. | altricial birds are unable to maintain body temperature when exposed to low ambient temperatures during the first days after hatching. thermoregulatory capacity begins to form as postnatal development progresses, and eventually nestlings become homeothermic. several factors may influence this development at both the level of the individual and the level of the whole brood, but to our knowledge no studies have focused on the effect of brood size per se on the development of endothermy in individu ... | 2016 | 27445402 |
| different seasonal patterns in song system volume in willow tits and great tits. | in most species of seasonally breeding songbirds studied to date, the brain areas that control singing (i.e. the song control system, scs) are larger during the breeding season than at other times of the year. in the family of titmice and chickadees (paridae), one species, the blue tit (cyanistes caeruleus), shows the typical pattern of seasonal changes, while another species, the black-capped chickadee (poecile atricapillus), shows, at best, very reduced seasonal changes in the scs. to test whe ... | 2016 | 27442125 |
| structural (uv) and carotenoid-based plumage coloration - signals for parental investment? | parental care increases parental fitness through improved offspring condition and survival but comes at a cost for the caretaker(s). to increase life-time fitness, caring parents are, therefore, expected to adjust their reproductive investment to current environmental conditions and parental capacities. the latter is thought to be signaled via ornamental traits of the bearer. we here investigated whether pre- and/or posthatching investment of blue tit (cyanistes caeruleus) parents was related to ... | 2016 | 27252832 |
| differential prevalence and diversity of haemosporidian parasites in two sympatric closely related non-migratory passerines. | haemosporidian parasites infecting birds show distinct heterogeneity in their distribution among host species. however, despite numerous studies on the prevalence and diversity of parasite communities across species, very little is known on patterns of differences between them. such data is lacking because up to date the majority of studies explored the patterns of variation in infections in different years, different time of sampling within a year or a breeding cycle, different study sites or w ... | 2016 | 27173618 |
| mediterranean blue tits as a case study of local adaptation. | while the study of the origins of biological diversity across species has provided numerous examples of adaptive divergence, the realization that it can occur at microgeographic scales despite gene flow is recent, and scarcely illustrated. we review here evidence suggesting that the striking phenotypic differentiation in ecologically relevant traits exhibited by blue tits cyanistes caeruleus in their southern range-edge putatively reflects adaptation to the heterogeneity of the mediterranean hab ... | 2016 | 27087844 |
| long-term consequences of high incubation temperature in a wild bird population. | because incubation by birds is energetically costly, parents frequently trade off investment in incubation against self-maintenance. this can be manifested by a reduction in incubation temperature, which comes at high somatic costs for nestlings. the extent to which these costs constrain fitness is poorly understood. we incubated wild blue tit clutches at three biologically relevant temperatures and subsequently recorded winter survival and survival to the breeding season. fledglings from the co ... | 2016 | 27048468 |
| intra-specific variation in wing morphology and its impact on take-off performance in blue tits (cyanistes caeruleus) during escape flights. | diurnal and seasonal increases in body mass and seasonal reductions in wing area may compromise a bird's ability to escape, as less of the power available from the flight muscles can be used to accelerate and elevate the animal's centre of mass. here, we investigated the effects of intra-specific variation in wing morphology on escape take-off performance in blue tits (cyanistes caeruleus). flights were recorded using synchronised high-speed video cameras and take-off performance was quantified ... | 2016 | 26994175 |
| when ambient noise impairs parent-offspring communication. | ambient noise has increased in extent, duration and intensity with significant implications for species' lives. birds especially, because they heavily rely on vocal communication, are highly sensitive towards noise pollution. noise can impair the quality of a territory or hamper the transmission of vocal signals such as song. the latter has significant fitness consequences as it may erode partner preferences in the context of mate choice. additional fitness costs may arise if noise masks communi ... | 2016 | 26986090 |
| sex roles in nest keeping - how information asymmetry contributes to parent-offspring co-adaptation. | parental food provisioning and offspring begging influence each other reciprocally. this makes both traits agents and targets of selection, which may ultimately lead to co-adaptation. the latter may reflect co-adapted parent and offspring genotypes or could be due to maternal effects. maternal effects are in turn likely to facilitate in particular mother-offspring co-adaptation, further emphasized by the possibility that mothers are sometimes found to be more responsive to offspring need. howeve ... | 2016 | 26929817 |
| sperm performance in conspecific and heterospecific female fluid. | divergent sexual selection within allopatric populations may result in divergent sexual phenotypes, which can act as reproductive barriers between populations upon secondary contact. this hypothesis has been most tested on traits involved in precopulatory sexual selection, with less work focusing on traits that act after copulation and before fertilization (i.e., postcopulatory prezygotic traits), particularly in internally fertilizing vertebrates. however, postcopulatory sexual selection within ... | 2016 | 26855769 |
| fluctuating selection on basal metabolic rate. | bmr (basal metabolic rate) is an important trait in animal life history as it represents a significant part of animal energy budgets. bmr has also been shown to be positively related to sustainable work rate and maximal thermoregulatory capacity. to this date, most of the studies have focused on the causes of interspecific and intraspecific variation in bmr, and fairly little is known about the fitness consequences of different metabolic strategies. in this study, we show that winter bmr affects ... | 2016 | 26839687 |
| an ecological model organism flies into the genomics era. | despite the very rapid 'genomicization' of the field of molecular ecology in recent years, there have been relatively few annotated whole-genome assemblies of nonmodel organisms published. instead, molecular ecologists have more frequently utilized next-generation sequencing technologies to develop genome-wide markers or to generate transcriptome data. whole-genome assemblies are more expensive and require considerable computational resources and bioinformatic expertise. however, the availabilit ... | 2016 | 26813493 |
| population genomic footprints of fine-scale differentiation between habitats in mediterranean blue tits. | linking population genetic variation to the spatial heterogeneity of the environment is of fundamental interest to evolutionary biology and ecology, in particular when phenotypic differences between populations are observed at biologically small spatial scales. here, we applied restriction-site associated dna sequencing (rad-seq) to test whether phenotypically differentiated populations of wild blue tits (cyanistes caeruleus) breeding in a highly heterogeneous environment exhibit genetic structu ... | 2016 | 26800038 |
| genetic correlates of individual differences in sleep behavior of free-living great tits (parus major). | within populations, free-living birds display considerable variation in observable sleep behaviors, reflecting dynamic interactions between individuals and their environment. genes are expected to contribute to repeatable between-individual differences in sleep behaviors, which may be associated with individual fitness. we identified and genotyped polymorphisms in nine candidate genes for sleep, and measured five repeatable sleep behaviors in free-living great tits (parus major), partly replicat ... | 2016 | 26739645 |
| thermal imaging to study stress non-invasively in unrestrained birds. | stress, a central concept in biology, describes a suite of emergency responses to challenges. among other responses, stress leads to a change in blood flow that results in a net influx of blood to key organs and an increase in core temperature. this stress-induced hyperthermia is used to assess stress. however, measuring core temperature is invasive. as blood flow is redirected to the core, the periphery of the body can cool. this paper describes a protocol where peripheral body temperature is m ... | 2015 | 26575985 |
| the influence of landscape configuration and environment on population genetic structure in a sedentary passerine: insights from loci located in different genomic regions. | the study of the factors structuring genetic variation can help to infer the neutral and adaptive processes shaping the demographic and evolutionary trajectories of natural populations. here, we analyse the role of isolation by distance (ibd), isolation by resistance (ibr, defined by landscape composition) and isolation by environment (ibe, estimated as habitat and elevation dissimilarity) in structuring genetic variation in 25 blue tit (cyanistes caeruleus) populations. we typed 1385 individual ... | 2016 | 26492434 |
| distribution of vasotocin- and vasoactive intestinal peptide-like immunoreactivity in the brain of blue tit (cyanistes coeruleus). | blue tits (cyanistes coeruleus) are songbirds, used as model animals in numerous studies covering a wide field of research. nevertheless, the distribution of neuropeptides in the brain of this avian species remains largely unknown. here we present some of the first results on distribution of vasotocine (avt) and vasoactive intestinal peptide (vip) in the brain of males and females of this songbird species, using immunohistochemistry mapping. the bulk of avt-like cells are found in the hypothalam ... | 2015 | 26236200 |
| characterization of the genome and transcriptome of the blue tit cyanistes caeruleus: polymorphisms, sex-biased expression and selection signals. | decoding genomic sequences and determining their variation within populations has potential to reveal adaptive processes and unravel the genetic basis of ecologically relevant trait variation within a species. the blue tit cyanistes caeruleus--a long-time ecological model species--has been used to investigate fitness consequences of variation in mating and reproductive behaviour. however, very little is known about the underlying genetic changes due to natural and sexual selection in the genome ... | 2016 | 26220359 |