C. Woodhams, Douglas Brandt, Hannelore Baumgartner, Simone Kielgast, Jos Küpfer, Eliane Tobler, Ursina R. Davis, Leyla R. Schmidt, Benedikt Bel, Christian Hodel, Sandro Knight, Rob McKenzie, Valerie Choosing probiotics with the greatest potential against amphibian chytridiomycosis. <p>Candidate probiotic bacteria (or fungi) are isolated from populations of amphibians that are able to persist in the presence of <i>B. dendrobatidis</i> (<i>Bd</i>) <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0096375#pone.0096375-Bletz1" target="_blank">[1]</a>. To increase the chances of successful prophylactic biotherapy, candidate probiotics should be tested for at least three characteristics: (a) capacity to inhibit <i>Bd</i> growth as a pure isolate without specific competitive interactions to induce antifungal metabolites, (b) capacity to inhibit <i>Bd</i> at a temperature range consistent with host habitat, and (c) resistance to host skin immune defenses that would complicate probiotic establishment. Remedial biotherapy of already infected individuals should maintain antifungal capacity when grown in competition with <i>Bd</i> and withstand the sometimes lethal effects of <i>Bd</i> metabolites (Fig. S6 in <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0096375#pone.0096375.s001" target="_blank">File S1</a>). Testing probiotic effect in vivo can be accomplished without resorting to pathogen exposure experiments by using the mucosome function assay described here.</p> immunology;microbiology;Pathology and laboratory medicine;pathogenesis;Host-pathogen interactions;probiotics;amphibian 2014-04-30
    https://plos.figshare.com/articles/figure/_Choosing_probiotics_with_the_greatest_potential_against_amphibian_chytridiomycosis_/1010128
10.1371/journal.pone.0096375.g005