Does exposure to artificial light at night impacts immunity and microbiome in natural populations of an amphibian?

Descripción del proyecto

Comprender el efecto de la luz artificial en los anfibios

La urbanización y las actividades antrópicas aumentan la exposición a estímulos estresantes, lo cual altera las funciones fisiológicas tanto de los animales como de las personas. La contaminación lumínica (luz artificial nocturna o ALAN, por sus siglas en inglés) afecta al 99 % del territorio europeo. Estudios recientes sugieren que la ALAN podría alterar la función inmunitaria. En el proyecto TOADALAN, que cuenta con el apoyo de las acciones Marie Skłodowska-Curie, se pretende estudiar cómo la ALAN influye en la inmunidad, la composición del microbioma y las características de la infección del sapo común («Bufo bufo») tanto a nivel cutáneo como intestinal. El equipo del proyecto examinará treinta poblaciones naturales de sapo común de una región francesa, con distintos niveles de exposición a ALAN, e investigará cómo afecta esta exposición a la susceptibilidad de los sapos a enfermedades infecciosas.

Objetivo

The constant increase of urbanization and human activities worldwide is exposing animals and human to a multitude of stressful stimuli that disrupt physiological functions in organisms. A major source of pollution nowadays, that affect 99% of the european territory and thus almost every organism in Europe, is light pollution (or ALAN, Artificial Light at Night). Recent studies suggest that the immune function could be strongly disrupted by exposure to ALAN, but these results mostly comes from experimental studies conducted in laboratory conditions, and thus not realistic of real conditions of exposure to the light pollution. Considering the current major biodiversity loss crisis, especially in amphibian taxa, it is crucial to know if the ability of wild organisms to mount appropriated immune respones and control infections is affected by this anthropic source of pollution.
Within an eco-immunological and One Health framework, this project has thus been designed to characterize for the first time, and totally in natura, the effects of ALAN on immunity, microbiome composition and infectious phenotype of a common nocturnal Vertebrate, the common toad (Bufo bufo). Using 30 wild populations of common toads living on a natural gradient of exposure to ALAN in a french region, this project will characterize:
(i) How exposure to ALAN impact toads’ immune phenotype, using multiple measures to precisely characterize the different immune components that may be differently affected.
(ii) How exposure to ALAN impacts toads’ microbiome composition at the two main interfaces of skin and intestinal mucosa, characterizing bacterial and eukaryotic communities.
(iii) If toads’ infectious phenotype is dependent of ALAN exposure, immune responses and microbiome composition - focussing on pathogens identified as a threat for amphibians in France.