The Montseny Brook Newt microbiome

Tue, 28 Sep 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Chytridiomycosis has already caused the disappearance of more than 200 amphibian species around the planet. These diseases — caused by chytrid fungi and exacerbated by climate change, globalisation, and the exotic pet trade — are predicted to drive many more amphibian populations to extinction in the coming years.

Calotriton arnoldi, the Montseny Brook Newt, is the only European salamander classified as Critically Endangered by the IUCN and the most threatened amphibian in Europe. Described in 2005, it is known only from a handful of mountain streams in the Montseny Natural Park (Catalonia), with an occupation area of just 10 km². A recent outbreak of the chytrid fungi Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) and B. salamandrivorans (Bsal) in the Montnegre i el Corredor Natural Park, just 15 km south of Montseny, poses a direct and imminent threat to this species.

Our goal is to identify bacterial candidates from C. arnoldi’s skin microbiome that could serve as probiotics under a bioaugmentation strategy to fight Bsal infection. We compare the microbiomes of C. arnoldi with those of Triturus marmoratus and Salamandra salamandra individuals associated with disease resistance. Based on these comparisons, we will isolate bacteria from skin swab samples and screen them for antifungal activity against Bsal cultures, building a collection of candidate probiotics to protect this critically endangered newt.

Conservation | del Campo Lab - Microbial Ecology and Evolution

The Montseny Brook Newt microbiome