ArticleScientific reports2023
Disease state associated with chronic toe lesions in hellbenders may alter anti-chytrid skin defenses.
Article in Scientific reports, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Identification of Opportunistic Pathogens on the Skin of Salamanders for Use as Molecular Targets of a De Novo Design of Multitarget Anti-International journal of microbiology · 2026Article
- Novel antimicrobial peptides and peptide-microbiome crosstalk in Appalachian salamander skin.NPJ biofilms and microbiomes · 2025Article
- Enhancing predictive performance for spectroscopic studies in wildlife science through a multi-model approach: A case study for species classification of live amphibians.PLoS computational biology · 2024Article
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Hellbenders (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis) are large, aquatic salamanders from the eastern United States. Both subspecies, eastern and Ozark hellbenders, have experienced declines resulting in federal listing of Ozark hellbenders. The globally distributed chytrid fungus, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) has been detected in both subspecies, and Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans (Bsal) poses a new threat if introduced into North America. Ozark hellbenders also suffer a high prevalence of toe lesions of unknown etiology, with changes in host immunocompetence hypothesized to contribute. Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) secreted from dermal granular glands may play a role in hellbender health. We collected skin secretions from free-ranging hellbenders and enriched them for small cationic peptides used for growth inhibition assays against Bd and Bsal. Generalized linear mixed models revealed the presence of active toe lesions as the strongest and only significant predictor of decreased Bd inhibition by skin peptides. We also found skin secretions were more inhibitory of Bsal than Bd. MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry revealed candidate peptides responsible for anti-chytrid activity. Results support the hypothesis that hellbender skin secretions are important for innate immunity against chytrid pathogens, and decreased production or release of skin peptides may be linked to other sub-lethal effects of disease associated with toe lesions.
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