Interacting symbionts and immunity in the amphibian skin mucosome predict disease risk and probiotic effectiveness.

ABSTRACT: Pathogenesis is strongly dependent on microbial context, but development of probiotic therapies has neglected the impact of ecological interactions. Dynamics among microbial communities, host immune responses, and environmental conditions may alter the effect of probiotics in human and veterinary medicine, agriculture and aquaculture, and the proposed treatment of emerging wildlife and zoonotic diseases such as those occurring on amphibians or vectored by mosquitoes. Here we use a holistic measure of amphibian mucosal defenses to test the effects of probiotic treatments and to assess disease risk under different ecological contexts. We developed a non-invasive assay for antifungal function of the skin mucosal ecosystem (mucosome function) integrating host immune factors and the microbial c

SUBMITTER: Woodhams DC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4005770 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature