Microbiome function predicts amphibian chytridiomycosis disease dynamics
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Published version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Background The fungal pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) threatens amphibian biodiversity and ecosystem stability worldwide. Amphibian skin microbial community structure has been linked to clinical outcome of Bd infections, yet its overall functional importance is poorly understood. Methods Microbiome taxonomic and functional profiles were assessed using high-throughput bacterial 16S rRNA and fungal ITS2 gene sequencing, bacterial shotgun metagenomics and skin mucosal metabolomics. We sampled 56 wild midwife toads (Alytes obstetricans) from montane populations exhibiting Bd epizootic or enzootic disease dynamics. In addition, to assess whether disease-specific microbiome profiles were linked to microbe-mediated protection or Bd-induced perturbation, we performed a laboratory Bd challenge experiment whereby 40 young adult A. obstetricans were exposed to Bd or a control sham infection. We measured temporal changes in the microbiome as well as functional profiles of Bd exposed and control animals at peak infection. Results Microbiome community structure and function differed in wild populations based on infection history and in experimental control versus Bd-exposed animals. Bd exposure in the laboratory resulted in dynamic changes in microbiome community structure and functional differences, with infection clearance in all but one infected animal. Sphingobacterium, Stenotrophomonas and an unclassified Commamonadaceae were associated with wild epizootic dynamics and also had reduced abundance in laboratory Bd-exposed animals that cleared infection, indicating a negative association with Bd resistance. This was further supported by microbe-metabolite integration which identified functionally relevant taxa driving disease outcome, of which Sphingobacterium and Bd were most influential in wild epizootic dynamics. The strong correlation between microbial taxonomic community composition and skin metabolome in the laboratory and field are inconsistent with microbial functional redundancy, indicating that wholesale differences in microbial taxonomy drive functional variation. Shotgun metagenomic analyses support these findings, with similar disease-associated patterns in beta diversity. Analysis of differentially abundant bacterial genes and pathways indicated that bacterial environmental sensing and Bd resource competition are important in driving infection outcome. Conclusions Bd infection drives altered microbiome taxonomic and functional profiles across laboratory and field environments. Our application of multi-omics analyses in experimental and field settings robustly predict Bd disease dynamics and identify novel candidate biomarkers of infection.
Date Issued
2022-03-10
Date Acceptance
2021-12-15
Citation
Microbiome, 2022, 10
ISSN
2049-2618
Publisher
BioMed Central
Journal / Book Title
Microbiome
Volume
10
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2022. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, 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 changes were made. 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/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.
License URL
Sponsor
The Leverhulme Trust
Medical Research Council (MRC)
Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)
Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)
Grant Number
RPG-2014-273
MR/R015600/1
NE/K014455/1
NE/S000844/1
Subjects
Amphibian
Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis
Chytridiomycosis
Metabolome
Microbiome
Multi-omics
Animals
Anura
Chytridiomycota
Microbiota
Mycoses
RNA, Ribosomal, 16S
0602 Ecology
0605 Microbiology
1108 Medical Microbiology
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
ARTN 44