Samantha Fontaine on the amphibian gut microbiome and temperature

Vertebrates rely on diverse bacterial communities living in their gut—the “microbiome”—to carry out physiological processes vital for host survival. Through its many functions, the gut microbiome can confer unique physiological capabilities upon the host allowing for adaptation to novel or harsh environments, and thus influencing the ecological and evolutionary trajectory of a species. Additionally, gut microbial communities themselves are plastic, responding to environmental factors both within and outside the host. Although much progress has been made in researching host, microbiome, and environmental interactions in model mammalian species, we lack a basic understanding of these relationships in many vertebrate taxa and wild systems. To expand our knowledge of these understudied groups, I will focus on amphibians as a model system and temperature as an environmental factor. Here, I will outline my progress and future plans to explore how temperature impacts the amphibian gut microbiome and host physiology, if gut microbial communities can confer thermal tolerance to their hosts and thus contribute to local adaptation, and how climate change may impact gut microbial communities in the past, present, and future.