Despite the importance of the microbial communities within higher organisms, little is known of the processes shaping the formation and persistence of these communities in natural systems. These microbial communities living in and on an organism can strongly influence host health by effects on nutrition, immunity, and other physiological systems. This project provides opportunities for undergraduate students at the University of Kansas to participate in cutting-edge biodiversity science research on birds and their associated microbial communities, as well as the opportunity to present results and network at local and national conferences. Research results will be disseminated to lay audiences locally and in the U. S, Southwest where the research takes place by collaborating with regional outdoor groups such as the Sierra Club and Audubon Societies to host and promote talks that will be open to the public.
The hologenome concept links evolution of the host genome and its associated microbiome and was originally conceived for coral reefs, although recent studies have expanded the idea taxonomically. Just as evolution in a host may affect the microbial community, evolution of microbial communities may also affect evolution of the host. Although previous work suggests a role of the geography related to host environment as well as host genetics in shaping the community of microbes living in and on an organism, currently there are no strong studies addressing the evolution of these associations in wild organisms. Hybrid zones provide an intriguing context to study the coevolution between microbial communities and their hosts. These zones provide insight into population genetic mechanisms affecting continued lineage divergence or lineage reticulation; gene flow, genetic drift, and natural selection may all be studied in the context of closely related, geographically-overlapping species. The proposed work will use next-generation sequence data of intestinal microbial communities across two bird hybrid zones in the U.S. Southwest. The study will assess whether population genetic processes and observed population structure in birds are associated with the structure, diversity, and patterns of selection in microbial communities in their intestine. Additionally, the project will investigate selection among ubiquitous bacterial groups between bird species, a currently unstudied topic, although it has been studied among individuals in humans. The research will further two components of key research priorities in molecular ecology, including understanding genomics of speciation and, specifically to this project, understanding the evolution of microbial communities, the understudied "influential passengers" of all higher taxonomic organisms, from plants to vertebrates.
