Frogs vs fungus: the emergence of amphibian chytridiomycosis
Rebecca J. Webb A B * and Anthony W. Waddle AA One Health Research Group, Melbourne Veterinary School, Faculty of Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Werribee, Vic., Australia.
B College of Public Health Medical and Veterinary Sciences, James Cook University, Douglas, Qld, Australia.
Rebecca Webb is a Research Fellow with the One Health Research Group, at the University of Melbourne. Rebecca is passionate about amphibian conservation, especially in regards to their biggest threat; the chytrid fungus. Her research aims to increase understanding of this fungal pathogen and identify its weaknesses, and use this information to inform potential control mechanisms. Currently her research focusses on using gene silencing techniques to characterise important fungal genes, and as a possible tool to reduce fungal virulence. |
Anthony Waddle is a Schmidt Science Fellow and postdoctoral scholar working at Macquarie University in Applied BioSciences. His research focuses on developing conservation interventions for amphibian species that have been impacted by chytrid fungus. Prior to his current position, Anthony worked on developing vaccines against chytrid, determining the mechanisms by which frog populations can persist despite the presence of chytrid, and developing habitat manipulations which can buffer against chytrid. He is now developing genome resources and synthetic biology techniques, which can be used to understand and promote host resistance to disease. |
Microbiology Australia 43(4) 169-172 https://doi.org/10.1071/MA22056
Submitted: 2 September 2022 Accepted: 17 November 2022 Published: 13 December 2022
© 2022 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing on behalf of the ASM. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND)
Abstract
By the late 1980s, widespread dramatic declines in amphibian populations were causing alarm. The culprit was identified as Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), a chytrid fungus that infects the skin of various amphibian hosts, particularly anurans (frogs), and the first example of a chytridiomycete parasitising vertebrates. The disease, chytridiomycosis, has spread globally and is linked to the decline and extinction of many amphibian species. This review summarises the discovery of Bd, its emergence as a panzootic pathogen, and some current mitigation strategies to conserve amphibians.
Keywords: amphibian, Australia, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, chytridiomycosis, conservation, disease, frog, fungal, wildlife.
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