The elephant (bird) in the room: unknown mechanisms and unresolved impacts of low DNA yields in avian microbiome research
Persistent URL
Author(s)
Kohl, Kevin D.
Anderson, Rindy
Andreadis, Catherine
Baiz, Marcella D.
Bodawatta, Kasun H.
Campos-Cerda, Felipe
Chaves, Jaime A.
Clark, Anne B.
Costantini, Maria S.
Davidson, Gabrielle L.
Davies, Charli S.
Dietz, Maurine W.
Florkowski, Melanie
Hird, Sarah M.
Houtz, Jennifer L.
Allegheny College
Karasov, William H.
Knutie, Sarah A.
Lim, Haw Chuan
Mason, Nicholas A.
Rowe, Melissah
Rudzki, Elizabeth N.
San Juan, Priscilla A.
Skeen, Heather R.
Slevin, Morgan C.
Somers, Shane
West, Annie G.
Worsley, Sarah F.
Videvall, Elin
Trevelline, Brian K.
Date Issued
May 18, 2026
Abstract
To holistically understand the biology of animals, we must unravel the complexities and specificities of host-microbe interactions across animal taxa. Birds represent enigmatic and scientifically compelling hosts in which to understand these interactions. Here, we present a brief summary of a series of conversations among avian microbiome researchers regarding methodological challenges facing the avian microbiome field, where most research to date has focused on bacterial communities of the gut. Collectively, we acknowledged a commonly shared but underreported issue facing the avian microbiome field: that of difficulty in obtaining high-quality and high-yield microbial DNA from avian fecal samples. We discuss some of the potential reasons underlying low DNA yields, such as inhibitory compounds and rapid DNA degradation, and provide recommendations for how researchers in the avian microbiome field might cope with these methodological challenges. Collective and dedicated efforts to address these challenges will be required for a robust understanding of host-microbe interactions in avian systems.
Journal
Animal Microbiome
Citation
Kohl, K.D., Anderson, R., Andreadis, C. et al. The elephant (bird) in the room: unknown mechanisms and unresolved impacts of low DNA yields in avian microbiome research. anim microbiome 8, 63 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1186/s42523-026-00579-0
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Version of Article
Version of Record
DOI
10.1186/s42523-026-00579-0
ISSN
2524-4671
Rights
© The Author(s) 2026. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the licensed material. You do not have permission under this licence to share adapted material derived from this article or parts of it. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.
Type of Publication
Journal Article
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