Relationship between the gut microbiome and genetic markers in the Galapagos mockingbird species complex

In this study, we applied collated MHC, microsatellite, and gut microbiome data from separate individuals belonging to the Galapagos mockingbird species complex to test for correlations between average genetic and microbiome similarity on average island level. We aimed at investigating the extent to which gut microbiome composition is associated with genetic dissimilarity based on both MHC and microsatellite markers.The hypervariable V4 Region of bacterial 16S rRNA was amplified using the paired primers 515F/806R, for samples named with "clamped" we also used two types of clamps in the PCR process, pPNA (PP01-25) and mPNA (MP01-25) both from PNA BIO INC. Paired end sequencing of the amplicons was performed with Illumina MiSeq technology over 2x250 cycles. The samples uploaded are already demultiplexed.