Early-life disruption of amphibian microbiota decreases later-life resistance to parasites.

ABSTRACT: Changes in the early-life microbiota of hosts might affect infectious disease risk throughout life, if such disruptions during formative times alter immune system development. Here, we test whether an early-life disruption of host-associated microbiota affects later-life resistance to infections by manipulating the microbiota of tadpoles and challenging them with parasitic gut worms as adults. We find that tadpole bacterial diversity is negatively correlated with parasite establishment in adult frogs: adult frogs that had reduced bacterial diversity as tadpoles have three times more worms than adults without their microbiota manipulated as tadpoles. In contrast, adult bacterial diversity during parasite exposure is not correlated with parasite establishment in adult frogs. Thus, in this ex

SUBMITTER: Knutie SA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5519754 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature