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Dryad

Effects of parental care on skin microbial community composition in poison frogs

Data files

Nov 23, 2024 version files 6.76 MB

Abstract

Early exposure to microbes can have lasting influences on the assembly and functionality of the host’s microbiota, leaving a life-long footprint on host health and disease resilience. Studies addressing how microbial acquisition is facilitated by parental care have mostly explored vertical transmission in humans and species with agricultural relevance. Anuran vertebrates offer the opportunity to examine dynamics in microbial community composition across life stages as a function of parental investment. In this study, we investigate vertical transmission of bacteria during parental care in a poison frog (Dendrobatidae), where dedicated fathers transport their offspring piggyback from terrestrial clutches to aquatic nurseries. We extracted DNA from tissues and skin-swabs and amplified the V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene. We performed two separate sequencing runs for laboratory collected samples and field-collected samples in a paired-end configuration (Roy J Carver Biotechnology Center, University of Illinois). Data from both sequencing runs that were used for the analysis described in the publication are provided in the form of the original phyloseq objects, together with the metadata, phylogenetic tree and scripts to reproduce the results. Using a laboratory cross-foster experiment, we demonstrated that frogs performing tadpole transport serve as a source of skin microbes for tadpoles on their back. To study how transport impacts the microbial skin communities of tadpoles in an ecologically relevant setting, we sampled cohabiting parenting and pond-spawning frogs and their tadpoles in their natural habitat. We found more diverse microbial communities associated with tadpoles of poison frogs compared to a non-poison frog, but no higher degree of similarity between adults and tadpoles of transporting species relative to a non-transporting frog. Using a field experiment, we confirmed that tadpole transport can result in the persistent colonization of tadpoles by isolated microbial taxa associated with the caregiver's skin, albeit often at low prevalence. This is the first study to describe vertical transmission of skin microbes in anuran amphibians. The provided data contains information on the skin microbiome associated with tadpoles and adults of wild populations of two poison frog and one leptodactylid species that might be integrated in other comparative studies. This is also the first study describing skin-associated bacterial communities of poison frog tadpoles, to our knowledge