ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Microbiol.
Sec. Microorganisms in Vertebrate Digestive Systems
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2025.1595357
This article is part of the Research TopicNew Insights into the Avian Gut MicrobiomesView all 3 articles
Gut microbiota dynamics and their impact on body condition in nestlings of the yellow-rumped flycatchers, Ficedula zanthopygia
Provisionally accepted
- Northeast Normal University, Changchun, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Investigating the gut microbiome during host development is essential for understanding its influence on host health and fitness. While host body condition is a crucial fitness-related trait and a strong predictor of viability in numerous animal species, its relationship with gut bacteria remains underexplored, particularly in nonmodel organisms. This study examines the gut microbiome of the altricial wild bird species, yellow-rumped flycatchers (Ficedula zanthopygia), by analyzing nestling feces through 16S rRNA sequencing at four developmental stages: Day 3, Day 6, Day 9 and Day 12 post-hatching. We explored the temporal dynamics of the gut microbiome and its correlation with body condition, a key indicator of fitness. Our results demonstrate significant shifts in microbial community composition and diversity throughout development. Notably, Day 3 nestlings displayed lower alpha diversity compared to later stages, while microbial diversity stabilized from Days 6 to 12. Both the age of the nestlings and the environmental conditions of the nest box significantly shaped the gut microbial community structure. A contemporaneous relationship was observed, where the scaled-mass index (SMI) at Day 6 positively correlating with microbial diversity at that time. Additionally, a time-lagged effect emerged, linking SMI at Day 9 to microbial diversity at Day 6. These findings highlight the vital role of the gut microbiome in the development of nestlings, particularly emphasizing Day 6 as a critical period due to its stable microbial diversity and association with SMI. This study underscores the influence of gut bacteria on host fitness in developing birds.
Keywords: gut microbiome, Yellow-rumped flycatcher, Microbial Diversity, Nestling, temporal dynamics, Smi
Received: 18 Mar 2025; Accepted: 06 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Jin, Zhang, Sun and Wang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Keping Sun, Northeast Normal University, Changchun, China
Haitao Wang, Northeast Normal University, Changchun, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.