More Than Meets the Eye: Unraveling the Interactions Between Skin Microbiota and Habitat in an Opportunistic Amphibian.

ABSTRACT: With amphibians still holding the record as the most threatened class of terrestrial vertebrates, their skin microbiota has been shown to play a relevant role in their survival in a fast-changing world. Yet little is known about how abiotic factors associated with different aquatic habitats impact these skin microorganisms. Here we chose the yellow-bellied toad (Bombina variegata), a small anuran that colonizes a wide range of wetland habitats, to investigate how the diversity and composition of both its bacterial and fungal skin communities vary across different habitats and with water characteristics (temperature, pH, and dissolved oxygen) of these habitats. Skin microbiota was sampled from 14 sites in the Province of Trento (Italy), including natural pools, ephemeral ponds, irrigation t

SUBMITTER: Lucia Z 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11761533 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature