The skin microbiota of the axolotl Ambystoma altamirani is highly influenced by metamorphosis and seasonality but not by pathogen infection

Abstract

Background: Microbiomes have been increasingly recognized as major contributors to host health and survival. In amphibians, bacterial members of the skin microbiota protect their hosts by inhibiting the growth of the fungal pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd). Even though several studies describe the influence of biotic and abiotic factors over the skin microbiota, it remains unclear how these symbiotic bacterial communities vary across time and development. This is particularly relevant for species that undergo metamorphosis as it has been shown that host physiology and ecology drastically influence diversity of the skin microbiome. Results: We found that the skin microbiota of the axolotl A. altamirani is largely influenced by the metamorphic status of the host and by seasonal variation of abiotic factors such as temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen, and conductivity. Despite high Bd prevalence in these samples, the bacterial diversity of the skin microbiota did not differ between infected and non-infected axolotls, although particular bacteria were correlated with Bd infection intensity. Conclusions: Our work shows that metamorphosis is a crucial process that shapes skin microbiota and that axolotls under different developmental stages response differently to environmental seasonal variations. Moreover, this study greatly contributes to a better understanding of the factors that shape amphibian skin microbiota, especially in a largely underexplored group like axolotls (Mexican Ambystoma species).

Environmental and Anthropogenic Factors Shape the Skin Bacterial Communities of a Semi-Arid Amphibian Species

“…Our finding that the microbiome is strongly structured by host life stage, with increased alpha diversity in adults compared to larvae, along with significant differences in beta diversity, is consistent with results of prior studies [16,[86][87][88]. The small percentage of ASVs (9%) with a relative abundance > 0.01% present in the post-metamorphic microbiome that were also found in larvae, large number of differentially abundant taxa, and few common bacterial co-occurrences further demonstrates significant restructuring of the skin microbiome from larvae to adults, in line with findings from other amphibian species [16,[87][88][89][90]. Although larval and adult networks differed substantially in taxa composition, the broad similarities in network topologies indicate that amphibian skin supports similarly complex bacterial ecosystems across host life stages.…”