Skin bacterial community differences among three species of co-occurring Ranid frogs

PeerJ

article

Zachary Gajewski¹  Leah R. Johnson¹  Daniel Medina¹  William W. Crainer³  Christopher M. Nagy⁴  Lisa K. Belden¹ 

[1] Department of Biological Sciences, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University;Department of Statistics, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University;Department of Animal Sciences, Cornell University;Mianus River Gorge Preserve

关键词: Amphibian skin microbiome;    Lithobates spp.;    Amphibian chytrid fungus;    Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis;    Tadpoles;    Ranid frogs;    Mianus river gorge preserve;   

DOI  :  10.7717/peerj.15556

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Inra

【 摘 要 】

Skin microbial communities are an essential part of host health and can play a role in mitigating disease. Host and environmental factors can shape and alter these microbial communities and, therefore, we need to understand to what extent these factors influence microbial communities and how this can impact disease dynamics. Microbial communities have been studied in amphibian systems due to skin microbial communities providing some resistance to the amphibian chytrid fungus, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis. However, we are only starting to understand how host and environmental factors shape these communities for amphibians. In this study, we examined whether amphibian skin bacterial communities differ among host species, host infection status, host developmental stage, and host habitat. We collected skin swabs from tadpoles and adults of three Ranid frog species (Lithobates spp.) at the Mianus River Gorge Preserve in Bedford, New York, USA, and used 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing to determine bacterial community composition. Our analysis suggests amphibian skin bacterial communities change across host developmental stages, as has been documented previously. Additionally, we found that skin bacterial communities differed among Ranid species, with skin communities on the host species captured in streams or bogs differing from the communities of the species captured on land. Thus, habitat use of different species may drive differences in host-associated microbial communities for closely-related host species.

【 授权许可】

CC BY