FROGLOG 101 is now out....

The Amphibian Specialist Group IUCN ASG has released an issue focused on Europe, North Africa and West Asia. The PDF can be downloaded from here, and there are articles by RACERs on RACE as well as POPAMPHIBIEN in France (Claude Miaud), conservation in Switzerland (Beni Schmidt) and Betic Midwive toads (Emilio Gonzalez and Jaime Bosch). A great job ASG and James Lewis!

Endemic Bd in Asia

A new paper by Bai and colleagues (Diversity and Distributions 18, 307--318, 2012) shows that multiple endemic lineages (haplotypes) of Bd exist in Asia. Most interestingly, the endemic Bd lineages appear to be pre-date the expansion of the global panzootic lineage of Bd.

Frog-killing fungus is a skin-loving hybrid

Here is a link to an interesting Scientific American article by Lucas Brouwers

'There be Monsters' - the discovery of BdGPL

Farrer et al describe in PNAS the first whole-genome resequencing of Bd from isolates worldwide. This study has provided a wealth of new data, including the unexpected discovery of three divergent lineages of Bd. One lineage has only been recovered from Switzerland (BdCH) and another from South Africa and the Mediterranean island of Mallorca (BdCAPE). The third lineage, BdGPL, occurs worldwide and is the only lineage associated with declines in Europe (Pyrenees & Iberia), Central America, North America (Sierra Nevadas) and Australia. Laboratory tests show that BdGPL is hypervirulent when compared to BdCAPE, and emerged some time in the 20th Century. Genomic patterns in BdGPL shows that it arose only once and is likely a hybrid. So, what is this data telling us? Firstly, the intercontinental spread of Bd is clearly owing to human movement of amphibians: that is how BdCAPE came 'jump' from the African Cape to Mallorca. Secondly, BdGPL is a recombinant offspring resulting from mating between two lineages of Bd. Whether these were brought together by the trade in amphibians resulting in the creation of a 'fungal superbug' remains to be determined.

Links to news stories in the New Scientist, NERC Planet Earth and the BBC.

RACE and chytrid mitigation in the swiss news

The swiss newspaper NZZ published an article on how RACE members develop methods to mitigate the effects of Bd:
http://www.nzz.ch/nachrichten/hintergrund/wissenschaft/der_pilz_und_das_froschsterben_1.13045153.html

Amphibian immunity is associated with resistance to Bd

Savage and Zamudio report in PNAS that survival following infection by Bd is associated with major histocompatability genotype. Two of the five experimental infected populations of lowland leopard frogs (Lithobates yavapaiensis) had significantly elevated survival. This survival was associated with alleles at MHC class IIB and heterozygosity at the locus (see figure). This observation likely has wider significance; for instance Tobler and Schmidt have demonstrated among-population variation in survival for Swiss populations of midwives Alytes obstetricans (PLoS One). Therefore, Evolutionary Conservation, by breeding for resistance, is increasingly looking like a viable tool to combat chytridiomycosis. The hunt is on!

High Prevalence of Bd in Gabon

Bell et al  have reported in Ecohealth a high prevalence of Bd from two national parks in Gabon, Monts de Cristal and Ivindo. Bd was detected in 20 of the 42 species and was present at all three sites surveyed with high prevalence (19.6%–36.0%). Both national parks were Bd-positive at all elevations and across habitat types, though no dead or dying frogs were encountered. This last observation is in keeping with those made in other regions of Africa, barring dieoffs reported from Kihansi and the Drakensburg. Bell et al's report contrasts with those of Gratwick et al who sampled other regions of Gabon: all were negative. Therefore, there appears to be a high degree of spatial heterogeneity in the prevalence of Bd in Gabon which begs the question, Why?