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Routes of transmission of gut bacteria in R. imitator tadpoles in an experimental context

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Date

July 2024

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2025-07-01

Authors

Belduque Correa, Natalia

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East Carolina University

Abstract

The gut microbiota provides important capacities for the host, and the relationship between host-microbiome could affect, bidirectionally, different traits of the history life. Therefore, it is important to know how the microenvironment of living beings is shaped and what factors influence the community and composition of bacteria. The mother–to–offspring microbiota transmission has been extensively studied in vertebrates, focusing on human primates. In amphibians, the understanding of diversity and community of bacteria has been biased to skin microbiome. In this research, we study whether R. imitator mothers, a neotropical poison frog from Peru that display prolonged parental care, are transferring microbes to tadpoles by feeding them with trophic eggs. We used 16S rRNA amplicon-sequencing of the gastrointestinal tract of captive R. imitator mothers and their tadpoles. The analyses showed that composition of microbes is different between parents and offspring. Also, the composition of gut bacteria of tadpoles included different bacterial phyla usually found in gastrointestinal tract of vertebrates. Although, phyla Bacteroidetes and Proteobacteria were also found in gut of fish food experiment, it was seen that the proportion of Proteobacteria are higher in tadpoles from switching and control experiments, which can suggest that the proportion of microbes that comes from the maternal diet is similar than the proportion that comes from the environment. This supports the assumption of mother’s role in parental care is not limited, exclusively, to provide nutrient resources.

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