Ashley M. Dungan, Ph.D.

Arbeitsvorhaben

Microbial Rewilding to Enhance Threatened Species Conservation

One strategy to conserve endangered species is to reintroduce captive-bred individuals into the wild. This presents a challenge, as captive animals are not in their natural environments and, potentially more significantly, their diets are completely different. The latter will likely have profound impacts on their gut bacterial microbiome with corresponding negative impacts on their behaviour, health, and fitness.
Since diet is a major influencer of gut microbes, it is highly likely that the gut microbiomes of captive-bred populations are different to those from native populations. Thus, to give captive-bred mammals the best chance of survival when they are released into their native habitats, I propose microbial rewilding of the gut microbiome via probiotics as a feasible strategy.
Microbial rewilding has been harnessed as an innovative approach to human health but would add significant value to animal care and conservation. Probiotic use has shown promise in multiple animal systems, from increasing livestock biomass to protecting against lethal fungal infections in captive amphibians and birds, but its application in conservation is nearly absent. My project addresses this imbalance using the fat-tailed dunnart (Sminthopsis crassicaudata) as a target species.
I aim to implement a combination of established and innovative methods to address four key aims:
1) Characterise the gut bacterial composition and putative functions of wild and captive dunnarts via metagenomic approaches – bacterial species and/or functions determined to be absent in captive dunnarts will be probiotic candidates, 2) Establish a pure culture collection of aerobic and anaerobic dunnart gut bacteria – these microbes will be used in probiotic development and administration, 3) Determine the best probiotic administration protocol to achieve a persistent gut bacterial community, and 4) Test if probiotic administration to captive dunnarts enhances host physiology.

Recommended Reading

Dungan, Ashley M., Leon M. Hartman, Linda L. Blackall, and Madeleine J. H. van Oppen (2022). “Exploring Microbiome Engineering as a Strategy for Im-proved Thermal Tolerance in Exaiptasia diaphana.” Journal of Applied Microbiology 132 (4): 2940–2956. https://doi.org/10.1111/jam.15465.
Dungan, Ashley M., Laura Geissler, Amanda S. Williams, Cecilie Ravn Gotze, Emily C. Flynn, Linda L. Blackall, and Madeleine J. H. van Oppen (2023). “DNA from Non-viable Bacteria Biases Diversity Estimates in the Corals Acropora loripes and Pocillopora acuta.” Environmental Microbiome 18: 86. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40793-023-00541-6.
Garcias-Bonet, Neus, Anna Roik, Braden Tierney, Francisca C. García, Helena D. M. Villela, Ashley M. Dungan, Kate M. Quigley, et al. (2023). “Horizon Scanning the Application of Probiotics for Wildlife.” Trends in Microbiology 32 (3): 252–269. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tim.2023.08.012.

Publikationen aus der Fellowbibliothek

Dungan, Ashley M. (Amsterdm [u.a.], 2024)

Horizon scanning the application of probiotics for wildlife

Dungan, Ashley M. (Cham, 2023)

DNA from non-viable bacteria biases diversity estimates in the corals Acropora loripes and Pocillopora acuta

Dungan, Ashley M. (Kettering, 2022)

Exploring microbiome engineering as a strategy for improved thermal tolerance in Exaiptasia diaphana