The skin microbiome facilitates adaptive tetrodotoxin production in poisonous newts.

ABSTRACT: Rough-skinned newts (Taricha granulosa) use tetrodotoxin (TTX) to block voltage-gated sodium (Na_v) channels as a chemical defense against predation. Interestingly, newts exhibit extreme population-level variation in toxicity attributed to a coevolutionary arms race with TTX-resistant predatory snakes, but the source of TTX in newts is unknown. Here, we investigated whether symbiotic bacteria isolated from toxic newts could produce TTX. We characterized the skin-associated microbiota from a toxic and non-toxic population of newts and established pure cultures of isolated bacterial symbionts from toxic newts. We then screened bacterial culture media for TTX using LC-MS/MS and identified TTX-producing bacterial strains from four genera, including Aeromonas, Pseudom

SUBMITTER: Vaelli PM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7138609 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature