#Alpha zoo frog skin
Skin is an integral interface between an organism's internal and external environment and undergoes routine exposure to a myriad of environmental factors, including pathogen challenge. Collectively, frogs have evolved unique skin adaptations to live in aquatic and terrestrial environments ( 2, 3), while exhibiting common elements in their skin composition and structure ( 4– 6). Nearly 8,000 amphibian species have been discovered to date (88% belonging to order Anura–frogs and toads) and approximately 150 new species are discovered each year ( 1). Elucidating the complex network of interactions occurring at the interface of the frog's external and internal environments will yield insight into the crucial role amphibian skin plays in host defence and the environmental factors leading to compromised barrier integrity, disease, and host mortality.
Although some aspects of frog innate immunity, such as antimicrobial peptides are well-studied other components and how they contribute to the skin innate immune barrier, are lacking.
We briefly discuss the influence of environmental abiotic factors (natural and anthropogenic) and pathogens on the immunocompetency of frog skin defences. In this review, we discuss the structure, cell composition and cellular junctions that contribute to the skin physical barrier, the antimicrobial peptide arsenal that, in part, comprises the chemical barrier, the pattern recognition receptors involved in recognizing pathogens and initiating innate immune responses in the skin, and the contribution of commensal microbes on the skin to pathogen defence. Despite the global decline in amphibian populations, largely as a result of emerging infectious diseases, we understand little regarding the cellular and molecular mechanisms that underlie the innate immune function of amphibian skin and defence against pathogens. Critical to the innate immune functions of frog skin are the maintenance of physical, chemical, cellular, and microbiological barriers and the complex network of interactions that occur across all the barriers. As such, frog skin is an important innate immune organ and first line of defence against pathogens in the environment. Department of Biology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, CanadaĪmphibian skin is a mucosal surface in direct and continuous contact with a microbially diverse and laden aquatic and/or terrestrial environment.
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