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Northern mockingbird ileal virome variation in Texas

Metadata Updated: September 14, 2025

A few studies have focused on avian gut virome variation in response to environmental stressors, but none have assessed virome in relation to chemically intensive crops, the production of which effects various aspects of avian health and fitness, and deleteriously alters available food resources. In this study we used shotgun metatranscriptomics (2 × 150bp; Illumina HiSeq 4000 with median 64,008,420 bidirectional sequences/sample) to assess whether exposure to agriculture (specifically cotton production) had a detrimental effect on the ileum virome of sedentary northern mockingbirds (Mimus polyglottos) sampled from two cotton-producing areas (16 birds) and one uncultivated area (7 birds) in Texas, USA. We recovered 43 viruses, 41 of which were assigned to 14 families and two to unclassified Riboviria. The majority of viruses (36 of 43) represented families associated with arthropods, plants, or fungi. Two of the remaining six viruses are host-associated and another one is associated with Avian Haemosporidia. The last three viruses are of unknown association. Individual sample richness varied from 25 to 33 strains. Virome richness differed among localities (Adj. r2 = 0.247, F(2, 20) = 4.615, P = 0.022) and was related to the proportion of cultivated area in the sampling region. Virome composition differed among localities (r2 = 0.370, F(2, 20) = 5.883, P = 0.001) and was affected by both the proportion of cultivated area (Spearman rho = 0.184, n permutations = 9999, P = 0.013) and even stronger by pesticide profiles (Spearman rho = 0.522, n permutations = 9999, P < 0.001).

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

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Dates

Metadata Created Date September 14, 2025
Metadata Updated Date September 14, 2025

Metadata Source

Harvested from DOI USGS DCAT-US

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date September 14, 2025
Metadata Updated Date September 14, 2025
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Maintainer
Identifier http://datainventory.doi.gov/id/dataset/usgs-64de7b01d34e5f6cd5535108
Data Last Modified 2025-08-18T00:00:00Z
Category geospatial
Public Access Level public
Bureau Code 010:12
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Metadata Catalog ID https://ddi.doi.gov/usgs-data.json
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Harvest Object Id 13f711de-78bd-4600-ab13-637531bbc828
Harvest Source Id 2b80d118-ab3a-48ba-bd93-996bbacefac2
Harvest Source Title DOI USGS DCAT-US
Metadata Type geospatial
Old Spatial -106.6500, 26.3131, -98.4814, 35.3890
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash eb43fdcb0c314c0590b484b1cb84fc3825b3cff7cd3f9ce308f312b11ef840d1
Source Schema Version 1.1
Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": -106.6500, 26.3131, -106.6500, 35.3890, -98.4814, 35.3890, -98.4814, 26.3131, -106.6500, 26.3131}

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