Frog microbiome rinse test
The goal of this project was to assess whether rinsing frogs with sterile water prior to collecting skin swabs had an impact on the microbiome detected. We used a captive-reared population of Rana sierrae. We collected two skin swabs per unique individual: one prior to rinsing with sterile water ("pre-rinse" frog samples), and another after rinsing the frog with 60 mL sterile water ("post-rinse" frog samples). We also collected water filter samples from tanks housing frogs. We then sequenced the V3-V4 region of the 16S ribosomal RNA gene from these samples to characterize and compare associated bacterial communities.