Abstract
The gut microbiota of amphibians is affected by exogenous and endogenous factors. We performed a comprehensive analysis using high-throughput sequencing technology and functional predictions and observed general changes in the gut microbiota of frogs in different growth stages, seasons, and growth environments. There were no significant differences in microbial richness and diversity between juvenile and adult wild frogs, between the summer and autumn groups of captive frogs, or between wild and captive frogs. There were significant differences in the gut microbiota community structure of Rana dybowskii between the summer and autumn groups of captive frogs and between wild and captive R. dybowskii, whereas the differences between juvenile and adult wild frogs were not significant. The dominant gut bacterial phyla in frogs from both captive and wild environments included Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes, Proteobacteria, and Actinobacteria. Linear discriminant effect size (LEfSe) analysis showed that Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes were significantly enriched in captive and wild R. dybowskii, respectively linear discriminant analysis (LDA > 4). The core operational taxonomical units (OTUs) that were found in >90% of all frogs tested encompassed 15 core OTUs. The captive frogs exhibited 15 core OTUs in addition to the above overall core microbiota, whereas the wild frogs exhibited 19 core OTUs in addition to the above overall core microbiota. Predictions made using Phylogenetic Investigation of Communities by Reconstruction of Unobserved States (PICRUSt) suggested that eleven KEGG pathways, such as infectious diseases, immune system diseases, metabolism, metabolism of other amino acids, metabolism of cofactors and vitamins, metabolism of terpenoids and polyketides, neurodegenerative diseases, and transport and catabolism, were enriched in captive frogs. The relative abundance of several red-leg-syndrome-related pathogens increased significantly in captive frogs compared with that in wild frogs. To our knowledge, this is the first study on the effects of individual seasons and captivity on the gut microbiota of frogs.
Highlights
Vertebrates harbor and interact with diverse microbiotas that influence the physiology of the vertebrate hosts in many ways and affect their overall health, development, reproduction and behavior (Cryan and Dinan, 2012; Kamada et al, 2013; Lizé et al, 2014)
To test whether the growth stage or growing environment affected community clustering and group dispersion, we modeled weighted UniFrac distances and Bray–Curtis dissimilarities based on an OTUlevel table via one-way analysis of similarity (ANOSIM) (Anderson, 2001)
The core operational taxonomical units (OTUs) shared 5 OTUs with those found in captive frogs and 10 OTUs with those of wild frogs
Summary
Vertebrates harbor and interact with diverse microbiotas that influence the physiology of the vertebrate hosts in many ways (e.g., impacting nutrient acquisition and immune responses) and affect their overall health, development, reproduction and behavior (Cryan and Dinan, 2012; Kamada et al, 2013; Lizé et al, 2014). The gut microbial communities of animals are affected by exogenous and endogenous factors, including ontogenetic stages (Kohl et al, 2013), physiological factors (Dehler et al, 2017), the dietary composition and trophic levels (Liu et al, 2016; Vences et al, 2016), seasonal changes (Weng et al, 2016) and habitat and environmental conditions (Kohl and Yahn, 2016; Longo and Zamudio, 2017). During development from tadpoles to frogs and periodic changes from feeding to fasting, the composition and diversity of gut microbes are significantly altered (Weng et al, 2016). Few studies have shown the effects of seasonal changes, changes in the growth environment, and individual growth and development on the intestinal microbiota of frogs
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