Correction: California condor microbiomes: Bacterial variety and functional properties in captive-bred individuals.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0225858.].

California condor microbiomes: Bacterial variety and functional properties in captive-bred individuals.

Around the world, scavenging birds such as vultures and condors have been experiencing drastic population declines. Scavenging birds have a distinct digestive process to deal with higher amounts of bacteria in their primary diet of carcasses in varying levels of decay. These observations motivate us to present an analysis of captive and healthy California condor (Gymnogyps californianus) microbiomes to characterize a population raised together under similar conditions. Shotgun metagenomic DNA sequences were analyzed from fecal and cloacal samples of captive birds. Classification of shotgun DNA sequence data with peptide signatures using the Sequedex package provided both phylogenetic and functional profiles, as well as individually annotated reads for targeted confirmatory analysis. We observed bacterial species previously associated with birds and gut microbiomes, including both virulent and opportunistic pathogens such as Clostridium perfringens, Propionibacterium acnes, Shigella flexneri, and Fusobacterium mortiferum, common flora such as Lactobacillus johnsonii, Lactobacillus ruminus, and Bacteroides vulgatus, and mucosal microbes such as Delftia acidovorans, Stenotrophomonas maltophilia, and Corynebacterium falsnii. Classification using shotgun metagenomic reads from phylogenetic marker genes was consistent with, and more specific than, analysis based on 16S rDNA data. Classification of samples based on either phylogenetic or functional profiles of genomic fragments differentiated three types of samples: fecal, mature cloacal and immature cloacal, with immature birds having approximately 40% higher diversity of microbes.

Intraspecific evolutionary relationships among peregrine falcons in western North American high latitudes.

Subspecies relationships within the peregrine falcon (Falco peregrinus) have been long debated because of the polytypic nature of melanin-based plumage characteristics used in subspecies designations and potential differentiation of local subpopulations due to philopatry. In North America, understanding the evolutionary relationships among subspecies may have been further complicated by the introduction of captive bred peregrines originating from non-native stock, as part of recovery efforts associated with mid 20th century population declines resulting from organochloride pollution. Alaska hosts all three nominal subspecies of North American peregrine falcons-F. p. tundrius, anatum, and pealei-for which distributions in Alaska are broadly associated with nesting locales within Arctic, boreal, and south coastal maritime habitats, respectively. Unlike elsewhere, populations of peregrine falcon in Alaska were not augmented by captive-bred birds during the late 20th century recovery efforts. Population genetic differentiation analyses of peregrine populations in Alaska, based on sequence data from the mitochondrial DNA control region and fragment data from microsatellite loci, failed to uncover genetic distinction between populations of peregrines occupying Arctic and boreal Alaskan locales. However, the maritime subspecies, pealei, was genetically differentiated from Arctic and boreal populations, and substructured into eastern and western populations. Levels of interpopulational gene flow between anatum and tundrius were generally higher than between pealei and either anatum or tundrius. Estimates based on both marker types revealed gene flow between augmented Canadian populations and unaugmented Alaskan populations. While we make no attempt at formal taxonomic revision, our data suggest that peregrine falcons occupying habitats in Alaska and the North Pacific coast of North America belong to two distinct regional groupings-a coastal grouping (pealei) and a boreal/Arctic grouping (currently anatum and tundrius)-each comprised of discrete populations that are variously intra-regionally connected.