Post‐epizootic microbiome associations across communities of neotropical amphibians
File(s)mec.15789.pdf (1.48 MB)
Published version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Microbiome–pathogen interactions are increasingly recognized as an important element of host immunity. While these host‐level interactions will have consequences for community disease dynamics, the factors which influence host microbiomes at larger scales are poorly understood. We here describe landscape‐scale pathogen–microbiome associations within the context of post‐epizootic amphibian chytridiomycosis, a disease caused by the panzootic chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis. We undertook a survey of Neotropical amphibians across altitudinal gradients in Ecuador ~30 years following the observed amphibian declines and collected skin swab‐samples which were metabarcoded using both fungal (ITS‐2) and bacterial (r16S) amplicons. The data revealed marked variation in patterns of both B. dendrobatidis infection and microbiome structure that are associated with host life history. Stream breeding amphibians were most likely to be infected with B. dendrobatidis. This increased probability of infection was further associated with increased abundance and diversity of non‐Batrachochytrium chytrid fungi in the skin and environmental microbiome. We also show that increased alpha diversity and the relative abundance of fungi are lower in the skin microbiome of adult stream amphibians compared to adult pond‐breeding amphibians, an association not seen for bacteria. Finally, stream tadpoles exhibit lower proportions of predicted protective microbial taxa than pond tadpoles, suggesting reduced biotic resistance. Our analyses show that host breeding ecology strongly shapes pathogen–microbiome associations at a landscape scale, a trait that may influence resilience in the face of emerging infectious diseases.
Date Issued
2021-03-01
Date Acceptance
2020-12-18
Citation
Molecular Ecology, 2021, 30 (5), pp.1322-1335
ISSN
0962-1083
Publisher
Wiley
Start Page
1322
End Page
1335
Journal / Book Title
Molecular Ecology
Volume
30
Issue
5
Copyright Statement
© 2021 The Authors. Molecular Ecology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
License URL
Sponsor
Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)
Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)
The Leverhulme Trust
Medical Research Council (MRC)
Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)
Identifier
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/mec.15789
Grant Number
NE/E006701/1
NE/K014455/1
RPG-2014-273
MR/R015600/1
NE/S000844/1
Subjects
Science & Technology
Life Sciences & Biomedicine
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Ecology
Evolutionary Biology
Environmental Sciences & Ecology
B. dendrobatidis
Batrachochytrium
chytridiomycosis
Darwin's naturalisation conundrum
endemic
enzootic
invasive pathogen
B. dendrobatidis
Batrachochytrium
Darwin's naturalisation conundrum
chytridiomycosis
endemic
enzootic
invasive pathogen
06 Biological Sciences
Evolutionary Biology
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2021-01-07