| characterization of canarypox-like viruses infecting endemic birds in the galápagos islands. | the presence of avian pox in endemic birds in the galápagos islands has led to concern that the health of these birds may be threatened by avipoxvirus introduction by domestic birds. we describe here a simple polymerase chain reaction-based method for identification and discrimination of avipoxvirus strains similar to the fowlpox or canarypox viruses. this method, in conjunction with dna sequencing of two polymerase chain reaction-amplified loci totaling about 800 bp, was used to identify two av ... | 2005 | 16107669 |
| galápagos mockingbirds tolerate introduced parasites that affect darwin's finches. | introduced parasites threaten native host species that lack effective defenses. such parasites increase the risk of extinction, particularly in small host populations like those on islands. if some host species are tolerant to introduced parasites, this could amplify the risk of the parasite to vulnerable host species. recently, the introduced parasitic nest fly philornis downsi has been implicated in the decline of darwin's finch populations in the galápagos islands. in some years, 100% of finc ... | 2016 | 28792593 |
| annual environmental variation influences host tolerance to parasites. | when confronted with a parasite or pathogen, hosts can defend themselves by resisting or tolerating the attack. while resistance can be diminished when resources are limited, it is unclear how robust tolerance is to changes in environmental conditions. here, we investigate the sensitivity of tolerance in a single host population living in a highly variable environment. we manipulated the abundance of an invasive parasitic fly, philornis downsi, in nests of galápagos mockingbirds ( mimus parvulus ... | 2019 | 30963843 |
| parasitism by an invasive nest fly reduces future reproduction in galápagos mockingbirds. | organisms allocate limited resources to competing activities such as reproduction, growth, and defense against parasites and predators. the introduction of a novel parasite may create new life history trade-offs. as hosts increase their investment in self-maintenance or defense, the cost of parasitism may carry over to other aspects of host biology. here, in an experimental field study, we document delayed effects of an introduced nest parasite, philornis downsi, on reproduction of galápagos moc ... | 2020 | 31897722 |
| association between louse abundance and mhc ii supertypes in galápagos mockingbirds. | major histocompatibility complex class ii (mhc ii) is an essential molecule triggering the adaptive immune response by the presentation of pathogens to helper t cells. the association between individual mhc ii variants and various parasites has become a frequent finding in studies of vertebrate populations. however, although bird ectoparasites have a significant effect on their host's fitness, and the host's immune system can regulate ectoparasitic infections, no study has yet investigated the a ... | 2020 | 32006226 |
| jumping the green wall: the use of pna-dna clamps to enhance microbiome sampling depth in wildlife microbiome research. | as microbiome research moves away from model organisms to wildlife, new challenges for microbiome high-throughput sequencing arise caused by the variety of wildlife diets. high levels of contamination are commonly observed emanating from the host (mitochondria) or diet (chloroplast). such high contamination levels affect the overall sequencing depth of wildlife samples thus decreasing statistical power and leading to poor performance in downstream analysis. we developed an amplification protocol ... | 2020 | 33145000 |
| the origin and diversification of galapagos mockingbirds. | evolutionary radiations of colonists on archipelagos provide valuable insight into mechanisms and modes of speciation. the apparent diversification of galapagos mockingbirds (nesomimus) provoked darwin's initial conception of adaptive radiation, but the monophyly of this historically important exemplar has not been evaluated with molecular data. additionally, as with most galapagos organisms, we have a poor understanding of the temporal pattern of diversification of the mockingbirds following co ... | 2006 | 16610327 |
| differentiation with drift: a spatio-temporal genetic analysis of galapagos mockingbird populations (mimus spp.). | small and isolated island populations provide ideal systems to study the effects of limited population size, genetic drift and gene flow on genetic diversity. we assessed genetic diversity within and differentiation among 19 mockingbird populations on 15 galápagos islands, covering all four endemic species, using 16 microsatellite loci. we tested for signs of drift and gene flow, and used historic specimens to assess genetic change over the last century and to estimate effective population sizes ... | 2010 | 20194174 |
| a hitchhikers guide to the galápagos: co-phylogeography of galápagos mockingbirds and their parasites. | parasites are evolutionary hitchhikers whose phylogenies often track the evolutionary history of their hosts. incongruence in the evolutionary history of closely associated lineages can be explained through a variety of possible events including host switching and host independent speciation. however, in recently diverged lineages stochastic population processes, such as retention of ancestral polymorphism or secondary contact, can also explain discordant genealogies, even in fully co-speciating ... | 2011 | 21966954 |
| hybrid ancestry of an island subspecies of galápagos mockingbird explains discordant gene trees. | introgression of genes through hybridization has been proposed to be an important driver of speciation, but in animals this has been shown only in relatively few cases until recently. additionally, introgressive hybridization among non-sister species leads to a change in the gene tree topology of the concerned loci and thus complicates phylogenetic reconstruction. however, such cases of ancient introgression have been very difficult to demonstrate in birds. here, we present such an example in an ... | 2013 | 23906599 |
| microsatellite primers for the four galápagos mockingbird species (mimus parvulus, mimus macdonaldi, mimus melanotis and mimus trifasciatus). | nineteen di- and tetranucleotide and one trinucleotide microsatellite dna markers were isolated from the galápagos mockingbird (mimus parvulus) and tested for cross-species amplification in the other three mockingbird species in the galápagos. in addition, primers for two microsatellite loci previously developed for mimus polyglottos were redesigned to obtain shorter amplification fragments. the number of alleles per locus and species ranged from 1 to 8, and expected heterozygosity varied from 0 ... | 2009 | 21564952 |
| balancing selection and genetic drift create unusual patterns of mhciiβ variation in galápagos mockingbirds. | the extracellular subunit of the major histocompatibility complex mhciiβ plays an important role in the recognition of pathogens and the initiation of the adaptive immune response of vertebrates. it is widely accepted that pathogen-mediated selection in combination with neutral micro-evolutionary forces (e.g. genetic drift) shape the diversity of mhciiβ, but it has proved difficult to determine the relative effects of these forces. we evaluated the effect of genetic drift and balancing selection ... | 2016 | 27545344 |
| phylogenetic relationships of the mockingbirds and thrashers (aves: mimidae). | the mockingbirds, thrashers and allied birds in the family mimidae are broadly distributed across the americas. many aspects of their phylogenetic history are well established, but there has been no previous phylogenetic study that included all species in this radiation. our reconstructions based on mitochondrial and nuclear dna sequence markers show that an early bifurcation separated the mimidae into two clades, the first of which includes north and middle american taxa (melanotis, melanoptila ... | 2012 | 21867766 |
| galápagos mockingbirds tolerate introduced parasites that affect darwin's finches. | introduced parasites threaten native host species that lack effective defenses. such parasites increase the risk of extinction, particularly in small host populations like those on islands. if some host species are tolerant to introduced parasites, this could amplify the risk of the parasite to vulnerable host species. recently, the introduced parasitic nest fly philornis downsi has been implicated in the decline of darwin's finch populations in the galápagos islands. in some years, 100% of finc ... | 2016 | 27220210 |
| heterospecific alarm call recognition in a non-vocal reptile. | the ability to recognize and respond to the alarm calls of heterospecifics has previously been described only in species with vocal communication. here we provide evidence that a non-vocal reptile, the galápagos marine iguana (amblyrhynchus cristatus), can eavesdrop on the alarm call of the galápagos mockingbird (nesomimus parvulus) and respond with anti-predator behaviour. eavesdropping on complex heterospecific communications demonstrates a remarkable degree of auditory discrimination in a non ... | 2007 | 17911047 |