Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis suppresses the host immune system by killing B and T lymphocytes. /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/111238/u201cBecause those are the same cells that proliferate during acquired immune responses, producing lots of those cells might just be wasting energy on something that chytrid can easily destroy,/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/111238/u201d she says./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/111238/nAmphibian populations are in decline around the world, with two-thirds of the world/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/111238/u2019s 8,000 species considered to be threatened and nearly 200 species that have already gone extinct in the last two decades. In the U.S., amphibian populations overall are declining at a rate of nearly 4 percent a year, with some areas, such as the Rocky Mountains and the West Coast, facing a higher rate of decline, according to the U.S. Geological Survey./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/111238/n
Although the researchers studied immune gene expression in lowland leopard frogs with chytridiomycosis, the findings may be useful for studying the disease in other frog species due to genetic similarities they share, Savage says./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/111238/n
Lowland leopard frogs were chosen for the study because their responses to chytridiomycosis vary from one individual to the next, unlike many other frog species that are completely susceptible to the disease or are completely resistant or tolerant./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/111238/n
This allowed the researchers to rule out genetic variation between species and pinpoint specific differences in lowland leopard frogs/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/111238/u2019 immune genes that predicted different responses to infection./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/111238/n
The frogs were collected in Arizona and shipped overnight to the Smithsonian/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/111238/u2019s National Zoo in Washington, D.C., where the infection experiments were conducted. Subsequent analyses of gene expression occurred at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/111238/u2019s Center for Conservation Genomics. Statistical analyses of the data were performed at Âé¶¹Ó³»´«Ã½./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/111238/n
Robert Fleischer, senior scientist and head of the SCBI/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/111238/u2019s CCG, co-authored the study and was Savage/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/111238/u2019s main advisor for the research when she was a postdoctoral fellow at the Smithsonian. Fleischer says the results help in understanding why some frogs survive the disease and others do not./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/111238/n
/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/111238/u201cIf we can solve this mystery, and we have taken a big step in that direction with this study, our hope and plan is to use this information to develop resources and strategies to mitigate the disease in the more susceptible species, and to counter the worldwide tide of extinction and endangerment caused by chytrid,/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/111238/u201d he says./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/111238/n
The researcher says the findings also show that acquired immune responses, such as those generated by vaccination, may not always be useful in combating invasive diseases of conservation concern./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/111238/n
Brian Gratwicke, a conservation biologist with SCBI; Katherine Hope, an associate veterinarian with the Smithsonian/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/111238/u2019s National Zoo; and Ed Bronikowski, senior curator of the Smithsonian/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/111238/u2019s National Zoo, were study co-authors as well./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/111238/n
The research was funded by a Smithsonian Institution Competitive Grants Program for Science grant, the Smithsonian/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/111238/u2019s Center for Conservation Genomics and a Smithsonian Institution Molecular Evolution Postdoctoral Fellowship./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/111238/n
Savage received her doctorate in ecology and evolutionary biology from Cornell University. She is a member of Âé¶¹Ó³»´«Ã½/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/111238/u2019s Genomics and Bioinformatics Cluster and joined Âé¶¹Ó³»´«Ã½/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/111238/u2019s Department of Biology, part of Âé¶¹Ó³»´«Ã½/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/111238/u2019s College of Sciences, in 2015./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/111238/n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Âé¶¹Ó³»´«Ã½ and Smithsonian researchers have made a breakthrough in the fight against the leading cause of amphibian deaths worldwide./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/111238/n","protected":false},"author":199,"featured_media":111247,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"lazy_load_responsive_images_disabled":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[5,23,24],"tags":[488,982,1066,8703],"tu_author":[],"class_list":["post-111238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colleges","category-research","category-science-technology","tag-biology","tag-college-of-sciences","tag-conservation-biology","tag-department-of-biology"],"yoast_head":"/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/111238/n
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