Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Natural Resources, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, USA.
Department of Environmental Sciences, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, USA.
Can J Microbiol. 2022 Sep 1;68(9):583-593. doi: 10.1139/cjm-2021-0390. Epub 2022 Aug 18.
Temporal changes and transmission patterns in host-associated microbial communities have important implications for host health. The diversity of amphibian skin microbial communities is associated with disease outcome in amphibians exposed to the fungal pathogen (Bd). To successfully develop conservation strategies against Bd, we need a comprehensive understanding of how skin microbes are maintained and transmitted over time within populations. We used 16S rRNA sequence analysis to compare frogs housed with one conspecific to frogs housed singly at four time points over the course of 1 year. We found that both α and β diversity of frog skin bacterial communities changed significantly over the course of the experiment. Specifically, we found that bacterial communities of cohabitating frogs became more similar over time. We also observed that some bacterial taxa were differentially abundant between frogs housed singly and frogs housed with a conspecific. These results suggest that conspecific contact may play a role in mediating amphibian skin microbial diversity and that turnover of skin microbial communities can occur across time. Our findings provide rationale for future studies exploring horizontal transmission as a potential mechanism of host-associated microbial maintenance in amphibians.
宿主相关微生物群落的时间变化和传播模式对宿主健康有重要影响。两栖动物皮肤微生物群落的多样性与暴露于真菌病原体（Bd）的两栖动物的疾病结果有关。为了成功制定针对 Bd 的保护策略，我们需要全面了解在种群内，微生物是如何随着时间的推移而被维持和传播的。我们使用 16S rRNA 序列分析比较了在一年的四个时间点中，与同一种类的一只青蛙一起饲养的青蛙与单独饲养的青蛙的皮肤微生物群落。我们发现，青蛙皮肤细菌群落的 α 和 β 多样性在实验过程中都发生了显著变化。具体来说，我们发现共栖青蛙的细菌群落随着时间的推移变得越来越相似。我们还观察到，一些细菌类群在单独饲养的青蛙和与同一种类的青蛙之间的丰度存在差异。这些结果表明，同种接触可能在调节两栖动物皮肤微生物多样性方面发挥作用，并且皮肤微生物群落的更替可能会随着时间的推移而发生。我们的研究结果为未来探索水平传播作为宿主相关微生物维持的潜在机制提供了依据。
