Your browser version may not work well with NCBI's Web applications. More information here...
1: Appl Environ Microbiol. 2008 Oct;74(19):5905-12. Epub 2008 Aug 8.
Related Articles, Links
Click here to read Click here to read
Bacterial community in the crop of the hoatzin, a neotropical folivorous flying bird.

Godoy-Vitorino F, Ley RE, Gao Z, Pei Z, Ortiz-Zuazaga H, Pericchi LR, Garcia-Amado MA, Michelangeli F, Blaser MJ, Gordon JI, Domínguez-Bello MG.

Department of Biology, University of Puerto Rico, San Juan, Puerto Rico 00931-3360.

The hoatzin is unique among known avian species because of the fermentative function of its enlarged crop. A small-bodied flying foregut fermenter is a paradox, and this bird provides an interesting model to examine how diet selection and the gut microbiota contribute to maximizing digestive efficiency. Therefore, we characterized the bacterial population in the crop of six adult hoatzins captured from the wild. A total of 1,235 16S rRNA gene sequences were grouped into 580 phylotypes (67% of the pooled species richness sampled, based on Good's coverage estimator, with C(ACE) and Chao1 estimates of 1,709 and 1,795 species-level [99% identity] operational taxonomic units, respectively). Members of 9 of the approximately 75 known phyla in Bacteria were identified in this gut habitat; the Firmicutes were dominant (67% of sequences, belonging to the classes Clostridia, Mollicutes, and Bacilli), followed by the Bacteroidetes (30%, mostly in the order Bacteroidales), Proteobacteria (1.8%), and Lentisphaerae, Verrucomicrobia, TM7, Spirochaetes, Actinobacteria, and Aminanaerobia (all <0.1%). The novelty in this ecosystem is great; 94% of the phylotypes were unclassified at the "species" level and thus likely include novel cellulolytic lineages.

Publication Types:
PMID: 18689523 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

PMCID: PMC2565963 [Available on 02/01/09]