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A Novel Bioaugmentation Technique Effectively Increases The Skin-Associated Microbial Diversity Of Captive Eastern Hellbenders, Erin K. Kenison, Obed Hernandez-Gomez, Rod N. Williams
A Novel Bioaugmentation Technique Effectively Increases The Skin-Associated Microbial Diversity Of Captive Eastern Hellbenders, Erin K. Kenison, Obed Hernandez-Gomez, Rod N. Williams
Natural Sciences and Mathematics | Faculty Scholarship
Captive environments are maintained in hygienic ways that lack free-flowing microbes found in animals’ natural environments. As a result, captive animals often have depauperate host-associated microbial communities compared to conspecifics in the wild and may have increased disease susceptibility and reduced immune function. Eastern hellbenders (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis alleganiensis) have suffered precipitous population declines over the past few decades. To bolster populations, eastern hellbenders are reared in captivity before being translocated to the wild. However, the absence of natural microbial reservoirs within the captive environment diminishes the diversity of skin-associated bacteria on hellbender skin and may negatively influence their ability to …
Cutaneous Microbial Community Variation Across Populations Of Eastern Hellbenders (Cryptobranchus Alleganiensis Alleganiensis), Obed Hernandez-Gomez, Jason T. Hoverman, Rod N. Williams
Cutaneous Microbial Community Variation Across Populations Of Eastern Hellbenders (Cryptobranchus Alleganiensis Alleganiensis), Obed Hernandez-Gomez, Jason T. Hoverman, Rod N. Williams
Natural Sciences and Mathematics | Faculty Scholarship
Multicellular hosts maintain complex associations with microbial communities. While microbial communities often serve important functional roles for their hosts, our understanding of the local and regional processes that structure these communities remains limited. Metacommunity analyses provide a promising tool for investigating mechanisms shaping microbiome heterogeneity, which is essential for predicting functional variation between hosts. Using a metacommunity framework, we examined heterogeneity in the skin microbiome of the eastern hellbender (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis alleganiensis). Hellbenders are broadly distributed throughout river systems in the eastern United States, but are present in specific environmental locations throughout their range. The large range of the species …