Sex, health status and habitat alter the community composition and assembly processes of symbiotic bacteria in captive frogs

Study information

Needs review

study design

cross-sectional observational, not case-control

Citation

PMID PubMed identifier for scientific articles.

38262927

DOI Digital object identifier for electronic documents.

https://doi.org/10.1186/s12866-023-03150-y

URI

Authors

Liu S, Imad S, Hussain S, Xiao S, Yu X, Cao H

Journal

BMC microbiology

Year

2024

Keywords:

Assembly, Frog, Habitat, Health status, Network structure, Sex

BACKGROUND: Frogs are critical economic animals essential to agricultural ecosystem equilibrium. However, Meningitis-like Infectious Disease (MID) often affects them in agricultural settings. While frog-associated microbiota contribute to elemental cycling and immunity, the effects of frog sex and health on gut bacteria remain understudied, and the relationship between frog habitat and soil microbes is unclear. We aimed to determine how frog sex, health status and habitat influence symbiotic bacteria and community assembly mechanism to provide guidance for sustainable frog farming and conservation. RESULTS: We employed 16S rRNA sequencing to investigate gut microbiota differences in relation to frog sex and health status. We also compared symbiotic communities in frog-aggregation, native and soybean soil on the farm. Results showed that gut bacterial β-diversity and taxonomy were markedly influenced by frog sex and health. Healthy frogs had more robust gut bacterial metabolism than frogs infected with MID. Cooccurrence network analysis revealed that healthy female frogs had more complex microbial network structure than males; however, diseased males showed the greatest network complexity. The assembly mechanism of gut bacteria in male frogs was dominated by deterministic processes, whereas in female frogs it was dominated by stochastic processes. Among symbiotic bacteria in frog habitat soils, deterministic processes predominantly shaped the community assembly of soybean soil. In particular, soybean soil was enriched in pathogens and nitrogen functions, whereas frog-aggregation soil was markedly increased in sulphur respiration and hydrocarbon degradation. CONCLUSION: Our study reveals that sex mainly alters the interaction network and assembly mechanism of frog intestinal bacteria; MID infection significantly inhibits the metabolic functions of intestinal bacteria. Furthermore, diverse frog habitat soils could shape more symbiotic bacteria to benefit frog farming. Our findings provide new horizons for symbiotic bacteria among frogs, which could contribute to sustainable agriculture and ecological balance.

Experiment 1

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Curated date: 2024/03/19

Curator: Idiaru angela

Revision editor(s): Idiaru angela

Subjects

Location of subjects: China

Host species Species from which microbiome was sampled. Contact us to have more species added.: Pelophylax nigromaculatus

Body site Anatomical site where microbial samples were extracted from according to the Uber Anatomy Ontology: Intestine Bowel,Intestinal tract,Intestine,intestine

Condition The experimental condition / phenotype studied according to the Experimental Factor Ontology: Sex design sex_design,Sex design,sex design

Group 0 name Corresponds to the control (unexposed) group for case-control studies: male

Group 1 name Corresponds to the case (exposed) group for case-control studies: female

Group 1 definition Diagnostic criteria applied to define the specific condition / phenotype represented in the case (exposed) group: female black spotted frog

Group 0 sample size Number of subjects in the control (unexposed) group: 8

Group 1 sample size Number of subjects in the case (exposed) group: 8

Lab analysis

Sequencing type: 16S

16S variable region One or more hypervariable region(s) of the bacterial 16S gene: V3-V4

Sequencing platform Manufacturer and experimental platform used for quantifying microbial abundance: Illumina

Statistical Analysis

Data transformation Data transformation applied to microbial abundance measurements prior to differential abundance testing (if any).: relative abundances

Statistical test: Mann-Whitney (Wilcoxon)

Significance threshold p-value or FDR threshold used for differential abundance testing (if any): 0.05

MHT correction Have statistical tests be corrected for multiple hypothesis testing (MHT)?: Yes

Alpha Diversity

Shannon Estimator of species richness and species evenness: more weight on species richness: unchanged

Richness Number of species: unchanged

Signature 1

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Curated date: 2024/03/20

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Source: figure 3a

Description: differential abundance of bacteria genera in frog guts between female and male frog samples.

Abundance in Group 1: increased abundance in female

NCBI	Quality Control	Links
Oscillospiraceae

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Signature 2

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Source: figure 3a

Description: Differential abundance of bacterial genera in frog guts between male and female frog samples.

Abundance in Group 1: decreased abundance in female

NCBI	Quality Control	Links
Laribacter

Revision editor(s): Idiaru angela

Experiment 2

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Curated date: 2024/03/20

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Differences from previous experiment shown

Subjects

Condition The experimental condition / phenotype studied according to the Experimental Factor Ontology: Infectious meningitis Infectious Meningitis,infectious meningitis,infective meningitis,Meningitides,Meningitis,meningitis,Meningitis (disorder),meningitis due to organism,MENINGITIS NOS,Meningitis of unspecified cause,Meningitis of unspecified cause (disorder),Meningitis, NOS,Meningitis, unspecified,Pachymeningitides,Pachymeningitis,Unspecified meningitis,Unspecified meningitis (disorder),Infectious meningitis

Group 0 name Corresponds to the control (unexposed) group for case-control studies: H: uninfected individuals

Group 1 name Corresponds to the case (exposed) group for case-control studies: NH: infected individuals

Group 1 definition Diagnostic criteria applied to define the specific condition / phenotype represented in the case (exposed) group: frogs found to be infected with Meningitis-like infectious diseases.