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Event Type
Research Presentation
Academic Department
Biology
Location
Dana Science Building, 2nd floor
Start Date
14-4-2023 1:30 PM
End Date
14-4-2023 3:00 PM
Description
HU-SURF Research Internship Under the direction of Drs. Korin R. Jones & Lisa K. Belden
Virginia Tech Department of Biological Sciences
The microbiome (the collection of microbes and their genes that reside in or on hosts) can have both positive and negative impacts on overall host health. For instance, in amphibians, the skin bacterial community can reduce pathogen infection. Adding beneficial bacteria to these bacterial communities could protect amphibians from potentially lethal infections, but knowing when to apply beneficial bacteria during development to achieve positive health outcomes remains unknown. The first step is to understand normal changes in the microbiome that occur over the typical complex life cycle of amphibians: embryos, tadpoles, juveniles, adults. In this study, we surveyed the whole-body microbiome of American toads (Anaxyrus americanus) during embryo, tadpole, and juvenile (recently metamorphosed) stages. For ten samples at each stage, whole-body bacterial communities were investigated using 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing. Understanding these developmental changes can have important practical implications for amphibian conservation. The findings suggest that the presence and absence of bacteria species and their relative abundances shift over development. Species richness was found to be higher in tadpoles than eggs or metamorphs while no significant difference was found between metamorphs and eggs. Significant differences in phylogenetic diversity and effective number of species were found across all stages.
Changes in the American Toad Microbiome During Development
Dana Science Building, 2nd floor
HU-SURF Research Internship Under the direction of Drs. Korin R. Jones & Lisa K. Belden
Virginia Tech Department of Biological Sciences
The microbiome (the collection of microbes and their genes that reside in or on hosts) can have both positive and negative impacts on overall host health. For instance, in amphibians, the skin bacterial community can reduce pathogen infection. Adding beneficial bacteria to these bacterial communities could protect amphibians from potentially lethal infections, but knowing when to apply beneficial bacteria during development to achieve positive health outcomes remains unknown. The first step is to understand normal changes in the microbiome that occur over the typical complex life cycle of amphibians: embryos, tadpoles, juveniles, adults. In this study, we surveyed the whole-body microbiome of American toads (Anaxyrus americanus) during embryo, tadpole, and juvenile (recently metamorphosed) stages. For ten samples at each stage, whole-body bacterial communities were investigated using 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing. Understanding these developmental changes can have important practical implications for amphibian conservation. The findings suggest that the presence and absence of bacteria species and their relative abundances shift over development. Species richness was found to be higher in tadpoles than eggs or metamorphs while no significant difference was found between metamorphs and eggs. Significant differences in phylogenetic diversity and effective number of species were found across all stages.