Abstract
BackgroundCaptive amphibians frequently receive antibiotic baths to control bacterial diseases. The potential collateral effect of these antibiotics on the microbiota of frogs is largely unknown. To date, studies have mainly relied on oral administration to examine the effects of antibiotics on the gut microbiota; in contrast, little is known regarding the effects of bath-applied antibiotics on the gut microbiota. The gut microbiota compositions of the gentamicin, recovery, and control groups were compared by Illumina high-throughput sequencing, and the functional profiles were analysed using Phylogenetic Investigation of Communities by Reconstruction of Unobserved States (PICRUSt). Furthermore, the relationship between the structure and predicted functional composition of the gut microbiota was determined.ResultsThe alpha diversity indices were significantly reduced by the gentamicin bath, illustrating that this treatment significantly changed the composition of the gut microbiota. After 7 days, the gut microbiota of the recovery group was not significantly different from that of the gentamicin group. Forty-four indicator taxa were selected at the genus level, comprising 42 indicators representing the control group and 2 indicators representing the gentamicin and recovery groups. Potential pathogenic bacteria of the genera Aeromonas, Citrobacter, and Chryseobacterium were significantly depleted after the gentamicin bath. There was no significant positive association between the community composition and functional composition of the gut microbiota in the gentamicin or control frogs, indicating that the functional redundancy of the gut bacterial community was high.ConclusionsGentamicin significantly changed the structure of the gut microbiota of R. dybowskii, and the gut microbiota exhibited weak resilience. However, the gentamicin bath did not change the functional composition of the gut microbiota of R. dybowskii, and there was no significant correlation between the structural composition and the functional composition of the gut microbiota.
Highlights
Captive amphibians frequently receive antibiotic baths to control bacterial diseases
Gentamicin significantly changed the structure of the gut microbiota The gut microbiota composition differed between the G and C groups and between the R and C groups based on the Bray-Curtis dissimilarity matrix (Adonis: P < 0.05; analysis of similarities (ANOSIM): P < 0.05; Table 1; Fig. 2) and the unweighted UniFrac distances (Adonis: P < 0.05; ANOSIM: P < 0.05; Table 1; Fig. 2)
The present study showed that the abundance-based coverage estimator (ACE), Chao1, and Shannon indices of the gut microbiota in the G group were lower than those in the C group, and Venn diagrams illustrated that the number of unique operational taxonomic units (OTUs) was lower in the G group than in the R and C groups
Summary
Captive amphibians frequently receive antibiotic baths to control bacterial diseases. The diversity of bacterial communities, especially the animal gut microbiota, is closely related to animal health [1, 2]. The body of research on the gut bacterial community of farmed animals is rapidly growing, reflecting the increasingly recognized importance of the role of the intestinal bacterial community in animal health [5]; research investigating aquatic products, especially amphibians, has not attracted much attention. Many studies have shown that the use of antibiotics has a significant impact on the animal intestinal bacterial community, such as a reduction in bacterial diversity, changes in species composition, the introduction of new species, and the total eradication of existing species [8, 9]. Few reported studies have investigated the effects of antibiotics on the gut microbiota of amphibians
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