The pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis disturbs the frog skin microbiome during a natural epidemic and experimental infection.

ABSTRACT: Symbiotic microbial communities may interact with infectious pathogens sharing a common host. The microbiome may limit pathogen infection or, conversely, an invading pathogen can disturb the microbiome. Documentation of such relationships during naturally occurring disease outbreaks is rare, and identifying causal links from field observations is difficult. This study documented the effects of an amphibian skin pathogen of global conservation concern [the chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd)] on the skin-associated bacterial microbiome of the endangered frog, Rana sierrae, using a combination of population surveys and laboratory experiments. We examined covariation of pathogen infection and bacterial microbiome composition in wild frogs, demonstrating a strong and consistent

SUBMITTER: Jani AJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4250152 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature