Evolution 2014: Could the right symbionts provide protection from chytrid infection to amphibians?

Patrick McLaughlin showed work on Bioko Island suggesting that frogs there may be protected from the ill effects of chytrid infection by the presence of bacterial symbionts. These symbionts produce metabolites that lower rates of parasitic infection, suggesting that symbionts might be used to protect amphibian populations worldwide. It also suggests a mechanism by which recent chytrid infections may have been able to decimate amphibian populations: if chytrid is an exotic parasite where it causes mass amphibian die-offs, its intensity of infection may be caused by having escaped bacteria that limit infection in chytrid’s native range.