Dormancy in the Amphibian Skin Microbiome

Presenter

Andrew Miller-Klugman

Campus

UMass Boston

Sponsor

Patrick Kearns, Department of Biology, UMass Boston

Schedule

Session 3, 1:30 PM - 2:15 PM [Schedule by Time][Poster Grid for Time/Location]

Location

Poster Board A52, Campus Center Auditorium, Row 3 (A41-A60) [Poster Location Map]

Abstract

A significant percentage of microbial communities can be dormant or metabolically inactive, in particular in complex systems like soils. Dormancy is a bet hedging strategy, allowing microbes to persist in the face of perturbation; allowing communities to resume function following the release of the disturbance. Amphibians house a rich cast of microorganisms on their skin that participate in their wellbeing and pathogen defense.  While the microbial communities on the skin of amphibians has been thoroughly explored, the role of dormancy has yet to be explored. To address this knowledge, gap I investigated the dormancy in the amphibian microbiome using a combination of high-throughput sequencing, epifluorescent microscopy, and quantification of endospore forming bacteria in lab grown and wild amphibians. Across both lab raised and wild amphibians, dormant microbiomes were present, but represented <15% of the total community as determined by microscopy and high throughput sequencing. Investigations in the presence of endospore forming bacteria reveled that endospore forming bacteria were rare, but viable. Overall my result indicate that dormancy is a strategy present in the amphibian microbiome and can be influenced by host species and environmental conditions. Further, the low percentage of dormant taxa across multiple species of amphibians suggests the skin of amphibians promotes a consistent environment for the microbes present, leading to low amount of inactivity.

Keywords

Amphibian, Microbiome, Bacterial Dormancy, Cell Staining

Research Area

Biological Organisms

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