Diversidade taxonômica do eucarioma de ninhos de espuma em anuros da família Leptodactylidae

Abstract

Among amphibians, anurans represent the taxon with the most numbers of species and are one of the most threatened with decline and extinction. Several factors have contributed to this, such as trade and exploitation of wild species, habitat loss, global changes, environmental contaminants, and emerging diseases. Of the pathogens that infect anurans, the lethal disease chytridiomycosis, caused by the pathogenic skin fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), is considered the most relevant due to its global spread and wide dissemination. In na attempt to minimize the effects caused by the Bd fungus, several studies have been developed to understand the interactions between the microorganisms, the host, and the cause of the disease. Despite these efforts, studies are still scarce and insufficient, and microbiomes have not been properly characterized. When we consider the microbiome of foam nests, this becomes even more evident. To fill the existing gaps, the present study, through sequencing of the 18S gene, characterized the foam nest eukaryoma of the anuran species Adenomera hylaedactyla and Leptodactylus vastus. The results revealed that the diversity and taxonomic composition of the foam nest eukaryoma is different between species. We further determined that the fungal community is composed of two predominant phyla, Ascomycota and Basidiomycota. The phylum Chytridiomycota has been recovered, although no Amplicon Sequence Variants (ASVs) related to the pathogenic fungus Bd have been found. Fungal genera known to cause mycoses in amphibians, such as Cladosporium, were observed. Our results suggest that the fungal community of foam nests needs to be further investigated to reveal the role of these taxa in the protection and defense of diseases, as well as in the conservation of anurans.