Identifying Antifungal Probiotics from Nature

SUMMARY: Researchers will search for naturally occurring antifungal probiotics as a new way to combat deadly chytrid fungus.

THE PROBLEM: Chytrid fungi cause deadly skin infections in amphibians that have led to species declines for more than 50 years. There are no treatments for chytrid disease in nature. This leaves animals at risk of further declines as chytrid fungi spread. The risk to animal health is urgent because there is a new species of chytrid fungus in Europe and Asia that may soon arrive in the United States.

THE PROJECT: One promising treatment is to increase the abundance of skin microbes that limit fungal growth. These beneficial microbes are known as “probiotics”. Many possible probiotics have been identified, but it is not known how they inhibit chytrid. This study will be the first to define the genes that amphibian skin microbes use to limit chytrid growth. The team will sample skin microbes from amphibians in Massachusetts and test their inhibition of chytrid fungus in culture. They will then characterize gene expression of the most anti-chytrid cultures and identify anti-chytrid genes. The researchers will work with local land managers to continue probiotic development in follow-up studies. The goal of sourcing probiotics from local amphibians is to lower obstacles to applying them in local systems.

POTENTIAL IMPACT: Methods and data will be available to future researchers who want to define anti-chytrid functions in their local amphibian microbiomes. This work could also result in new approaches to chytrid treatment based on anti-fungal mechanisms discovered in the amphibian skin bacteria.