Symbiotic microbial communities on amphibian skin and their role in disease resistance

所有种类的动植物都含有微生物(细菌和真菌)，这些微生物在它们体内和上面共生。这些微生物如何与其宿主生物体的健康有关在很大程度上尚不确定，尤其是对共生微生物如何影响宿主应对致病病原体的能力的了解有限。这项拟议的研究将使用两栖动物作为模型系统，并将其作为一种与世界各地两栖动物数量下降有关的真菌皮肤病原体。不同的两栖动物物种对真菌病原体引起的疾病高度敏感或耐受，有合理的证据表明，自然产生的皮肤微生物可能起到重要作用。这项研究将使用对野生两栖动物种群的实地观察和将在实验室进行的一系列具体实验。在野外，将对两栖动物进行微生物采样，以比较池塘栖息地中不同物种的差异。在实验室中，对照实验将检查皮肤上的微生物随着时间的推移对病原体的反应，以及它们对益生菌治疗(有益细菌)的反应，以努力了解生活在皮肤上的微生物的生态。新的高通量DNA测序技术和创新的基于计算机的分析工具将被用来检查每个样本中不同细菌和真菌组的身份和组成。广泛影响：这项研究旨在增进我们对共生皮肤微生物的作用以及如何开发益生菌治疗方法用于保护两栖动物以及广泛的人类和野生动物疾病系统的知识。该项目将推进早期职业科学家(PI)的研究计划，并支持培养研究生、博士后研究员和来自代表性不足背景的本科生。该项目期间产生的所有DNA序列数据和分析工具将供其他研究人员使用。科罗拉多州濒临灭绝的两栖动物物种北极蛙将作为该项目的重点物种，私人投资者将与科罗拉多州的北极蛙恢复计划建立合作关系。

All species of plants and animals harbor microbes (bacteria and fungi) that live symbiotically in and on them. How those microbes are related to the health of their host organisms is largely undetermined and, in particular, there is a limited understanding of how symbiotic microbes influence a host's ability to cope with disease-causing pathogens. The proposed research will use amphibians as a model system and a fungal skin pathogen that is linked to the decline of amphibian populations around the world. Different amphibian species are either highly susceptible or tolerant to disease caused by the fungal pathogen, and there is reasonable evidence to suggest that naturally occurring skin microbes may play an important role. This research will use both field observations from wild amphibian populations and a series of specific experiments that will be conducted in the laboratory. In the field, amphibians will be sampled for microbes to compare differences among species in pond habitats. In the lab, controlled experiments will examine how microbes on the skin respond to the pathogen over time and also how they respond to probiotic treatments (beneficial bacteria) in an effort to understand the ecology of the microorganisms that live on the skin. Novel high-throughput DNA sequencing techniques and innovative computer-based analysis tools will be used to examine the identity and composition of different bacterial and fungal groups in each sample.Broader Impacts: This research aims to advance our knowledge about the role of symbiotic skin microbes and how probiotic treatments can be developed for use in conservation of amphibians as well as a broad range of human and wildlife disease systems. The project will advance the research program of an early career scientist (PI) and support the training of a graduate student, a postdoctoral researcher, and undergraduates from under-represented backgrounds. All DNA sequence data and analytic tools produced during this project will be made available for use by other researchers. Boreal toads, an endangered amphibian species in Colorado, will serve as a focal species in this project and the PIs will build collaborations with the Boreal Toad Recovery Program in Colorado.