Salamander skin microbiomes and association with mucosome

We used culturing assays, molecular microbiomics and pathogen diagnostics to assess how host-associated bacteria interact with one another and with pathogens. We collected skin swabs and skin secretions from individuals of four wild salamander species: red-backed salamander (n = 35), two-lined salamander (n = 12), seal salamander (n = 11), and eastern newt (n = 25) in Virginia. We determined skin microbiome composition using Illumina high-throughput sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene on two sequencing runs. We determined how effective host skin secretions (i.e., the mucosome) were at killing two fungal pathogens, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) and B. salamandrivorans (Bsal), and tested the hypothesis that components of bacterial diversity are predictive of pathogen-killing ability.