Due to its unique biology, the blind cave salamander (olm) is the most recognizable animal in the Dinaric underground. It is one of the most endangered animals in Europe, threatened mainly by various pathogens and changes in its natural environment, mainly by pollution. The aim of the master thesis was to investigate the composition of the bacterial skin microbiota of the olm and its aquatic environment. The 2196 aerobic chemoorganoheterotrophic bacteria were isolated from the skin of 32 specimens of the subspecies Proteus anguinus anguinus and two specimens of the subspecies Proteus anguinus parkelj, as well as 18 water samples from different locations. We found that the composition of microbiota is highly diverse and when comparing the cutaneous and aqueous microbiota they are quite similar. Most isolates belong to the genera Pseudomonas, Aeromonas, Acinetobacter, Flavobacterium and Bacillus, which are ubiquitous, we isolated them from swabs and water, so we conclude that most of the skin microbiota originates from their aquatic environment. Isolates of the genera Brevundimonas, Janthinobacter, Serratia and Stenotrophomonas could be an integral part of the protective microbiota of amphibians according to the literature and thus have a similar function in the salamander. The comparison of skin microbiota between wild and captive specimens showed that the diversity of isolates is higher in captive animals. Comparison of skin microbiota between healthy and diseased specimens showed that bacterial diversity was greater in healthy specimens. We also tested the resistance of 112 of the 2196 isolates to ampicillin, cefotaxime, imipenem, tetracycline, erythromycin, kanamycin, enrofloxacin and chloramphenicol. Most strains tested were resistant to cefotaxime (47.5%) and a smaller proportion to tetracycline (3.3%). Enrofloxacin, used in veterinary medicine, was effective against most of the isolates tested. Using machine learning methods, we found that there was no similarity between samples in terms of location, sampling season, and sample type. A statistically significant difference between sample groups was only found between samples from different sites, namely between Jelševnik and the Tular cave laboratory sites. The master thesis was completed as part of the project 'Emerging microbial threats to endemic troglobiotic amphibian Proteus anguinus'.
|