Anthropogenic change and disease susceptibility in poison frogs: identifying links with diet, skin alkaloids, and the microbiome

人为干扰加上气候变化是生物多样性丧失的主要原因。在厄瓜多尔，约97%的乔科生物多样性热点现在被砍伐，强调需要了解和预测物种对人为变化的反应。该项目将研究diablito毒蛙Oophaga sylvatica的行为和微生物反应，作为评估物种如何应对干扰和气候变化的测试案例。微生物组的组成可以在不同环境中迅速变化，微生物组可以在其宿主物种的抗病性中发挥重要作用。因此，了解环境变化和微生物组之间的联系是了解人为变化下疾病易感性的重要一步。Oophaga sylvatica是一个理想的模型，可以测试人为变化，行为和微生物组对真菌皮肤病原体Batrachochytrium dendrobatim（Bd）的易感性之间的联系：O。森林草能螯合节肢动物猎物中的有毒生物碱，其皮肤生物碱在体外具有抑菌活性。木虱的饮食和皮肤生物碱的配置文件也被证明是受人为的变化。我们假设饮食和皮肤生物碱的变化是由微生境选择驱动的，微生物组组成将对Bd的易感性产生连锁效应。

Anthropogenic disturbance, coupled with climate change, is a leading cause of biodiversity loss. In Ecuador, approximately 97% of the Chocó biodiversity hotspot is now deforested, underscoring the need to understand and predict species' responses to Anthropogenic change. This project will interrogate behavioural and microbial responses in the diablito poison frog, Oophaga sylvatica as a test case to assess how species respond to disturbance and climate change.The composition of microbiomes can change rapidly across environments, and microbiomes can play an important role in disease resistance in their host species. Understanding links between environmental change and the microbiome is therefore an important step in understanding disease susceptibility under Anthropogenic change. Oophaga sylvatica is an ideal model to test links between Anthropogenic change, behaviour, and the microbiome on susceptibility to the fungal skin pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd): O. sylvatica sequester toxic alkaloids from arthropod prey and their skin alkaloids can display microbial inhibitory activity in vitro. Oophaga sylvatica's diet and skin alkaloid profile have also been shown to be impacted by anthropogenic change. We hypothesise that variation in diet and skin alkaloids is driven by microhabitat choice, and that microbiome composition will have knock-on effects on susceptibility to Bd.