Assembly of the amphibian microbiome is influenced by the effects of land‐use change on environmental reservoirs

Summary A growing focus in microbial ecology is understanding how beneficial microbiome function is created and maintained through various assembly mechanisms. This study explores the role of both the environment and disease in regulating the composition of microbial species in the soil and on amphi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Environmental microbiology 2021-08, Vol.23 (8), p.4595-4611
Main Authors: Barnes, Elle M., Kutos, Steve, Naghshineh, Nina, Mesko, Marissa, You, Qing, Lewis, J. D.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Amphibians
Aquatic reptiles
Assembly
Community composition
Composition
Cores
Dispersal
Fungi
Metropolitan areas
Microbial activity
Microbiomes
Microorganisms
Pathogens
Skin
Soil
Soils
Symbionts
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Summary:Summary A growing focus in microbial ecology is understanding how beneficial microbiome function is created and maintained through various assembly mechanisms. This study explores the role of both the environment and disease in regulating the composition of microbial species in the soil and on amphibian hosts. We compared the microbial communities of Plethodon cinereus salamanders along a land‐use gradient in the New York metropolitan area and paired these with associated soil cores. Additionally, we characterized the diversity of bacterial and fungal symbionts that putatively inhibit the pathogenic fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis. We predicted that variation in skin microbial community composition would correlate with changes seen in the soil which functions as the regional species pool. We found that salamanders and soil share many microbial taxa but that these two communities exhibit differences in the relative abundances of the bacterial phyla Acidobacteria, Actinobacteria, and Proteobacteria and the fungal phyla Ascomycota and genus Basidiobolus. Microbial community composition varies with changes in land‐use associated factors creating site‐specific compositions. By employing a quantitative, null‐based assembly model, we identified that dispersal limitation, variable selection, and drift guide assembly of microbes onto their skin, creating high dissimilarity between individuals with likely consequences in disease preventative function.
ISSN:1462-2912
1462-2920
DOI:10.1111/1462-2920.15653