Interacting Symbionts and Immunity in the Amphibian Skin Mucosome Predict Disease Risk and Probiotic Effectiveness

A new paper by Doug Woodhams and collaborators shows that the amphibian skin mucosome predicts the risk of Bd infection and the effectiveness of probiotic therapy. The authors used data from www.bd-maps.eu. The paper was published in PLoS ONE (http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi/10.1371/journal.pone.0096375).

Frog-Killing Fungus Meets Its Match in Hidden World of Tiny Predators | The Artful Amoeba, Scientific American Blog Network

Dirk Schmeller, Adeline Loyau, Frank Pasmans, Mark Blooi, and their colleagues have discovered that, at least in the alpine lakes of the Pyrenees between France and Spain, tiny predatory microbes can put the disease-causing fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, or Bd, soundly in its place. They do this because the fungus has relatives in the lake that look and act similarly, and these fungi make up a natural part of these microbes’ diets. These native microscopic fungi dine on detritus, not frogs. But to micropredatores, the spores of Bd look just like their regular breakfasts, and are evidently just as tasty.

Frog-Killing Fungus Meets Its Match in Hidden World of Tiny Predators | The Artful Amoeba, Scientific American Blog Network

Fungus-Chomping Micro Predators Could Protect Amphibians from Decimating Skin Disease - Scientific American

Fungus-Chomping Micro Predators Could Protect Amphibians from Decimating Skin Disease - Scientific American
In 2012 a team of temperamental donkeys picked their way down the French Pyrenees carrying a payload of voracious protists. Donkeys wouldn't ordinarily be required to ferry single-celled microbes, but these tiny organisms happened to be inhabitants of the several hundred pounds of lake water that the donkeys were also carrying, whether they liked it or not. “It's kind of funny,” says Dirk Schmeller, the scientist whose team hired the donkeys, “because it shows donkeys can help save amphibians.”