Giant Japanese Salamander news
There are several species of amphibians worldwide being threatened by Chytrid fungus.
"Chytrid fungi were long thought to be predominantly free-living saprophytes, with a few species capable of infecting only invertebrates and vascular plants. However, in 1999 a new species - Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (hereafter Bd) - was described infecting amphibians and causing the often fatal disease, chytridiomycosis. Since that discovery, Bd has been identified in association with amphibian population declines on every amphibian-inhabited continent.
Where Bd thrives, generally in moist cool habitats, 50% of amphibian species and 80% of individuals can be expected to disappear within one year. Currently it cannot be stopped in the wild and a minority of species seem able to survive with a Bd infection as larvae or as adults and these animals likely serve as a reservoir and vectors for future outbreaks. Notable among resistant species are worldwide invasive pest species including marine toads, American bullfrogs and African clawed frogs."
:c
A cane toad with chytridiomycosis.
This is a Giant Japanese Salamander(pic swiped from national geographic hehh):
CUTE.
"When the chytrid fungus was identified just over a decade ago, indications were that Japan would be an unlikely place to look for its origins.
With the discovery of chytrid on museum specimens of the African clawed frog (Xenopus laevis), an out-of-Africa migration spurred by human transportation of amphibians once seemed the simple likelihood.
But just last year, a team of researchers led by Koichi Goka from Japan's National Institute for Environmental Studies published research showing that certain strains of chytrid were present on Japanese giant salamanders, and only on Japanese giant salamanders, including museum specimens from a century or so back; and that the relationship seemed benign.
The hanzaki-loving strains of chytrid appear to differ from those that are proving so virulent to amphibians now.
Unravelling all that, says Don Church, might tell us something about the origins and spread of chytrid - and there is so much diversity among Japanese chytrid strains that the country is now being touted as a possible origin, as diversity often implies a long evolutionary timeframe.
More importantly, the discovery might also provide options for treating the infection."
Here is where it gets really interesting:
""In the case of the North American salamanders, what was found was that they have bacteria living on their skin that produce peptides that are lethal to the amphibian chytrid fungus," says Dr Church.
"And those bacteria might be able to be transplanted to other species that can't fight off the fungus."
This is a line of research that is very much in play in laboratories around the world.
It appears likely now that studies of the Japanese giant salamander can expand the number of chytrid-fighting bacteria known to science, and so extend the options for developing treatments for an infection that currently cannot be controlled in the wild.
But that can only come to pass if the giant salamanders endure; something that is not guaranteed, with the challenges they face in modern Japan including, perhaps, new strains of chytrid itself.
There is as yet no modern hero able to still the pace of habitat loss or prevent invasion from rival species."
Awesome videos and more at the article.
"Chytrid fungi were long thought to be predominantly free-living saprophytes, with a few species capable of infecting only invertebrates and vascular plants. However, in 1999 a new species - Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (hereafter Bd) - was described infecting amphibians and causing the often fatal disease, chytridiomycosis. Since that discovery, Bd has been identified in association with amphibian population declines on every amphibian-inhabited continent.
Where Bd thrives, generally in moist cool habitats, 50% of amphibian species and 80% of individuals can be expected to disappear within one year. Currently it cannot be stopped in the wild and a minority of species seem able to survive with a Bd infection as larvae or as adults and these animals likely serve as a reservoir and vectors for future outbreaks. Notable among resistant species are worldwide invasive pest species including marine toads, American bullfrogs and African clawed frogs."
:c
A cane toad with chytridiomycosis.
This is a Giant Japanese Salamander(pic swiped from national geographic hehh):
CUTE.
"When the chytrid fungus was identified just over a decade ago, indications were that Japan would be an unlikely place to look for its origins.
With the discovery of chytrid on museum specimens of the African clawed frog (Xenopus laevis), an out-of-Africa migration spurred by human transportation of amphibians once seemed the simple likelihood.
But just last year, a team of researchers led by Koichi Goka from Japan's National Institute for Environmental Studies published research showing that certain strains of chytrid were present on Japanese giant salamanders, and only on Japanese giant salamanders, including museum specimens from a century or so back; and that the relationship seemed benign.
The hanzaki-loving strains of chytrid appear to differ from those that are proving so virulent to amphibians now.
Unravelling all that, says Don Church, might tell us something about the origins and spread of chytrid - and there is so much diversity among Japanese chytrid strains that the country is now being touted as a possible origin, as diversity often implies a long evolutionary timeframe.
More importantly, the discovery might also provide options for treating the infection."
Here is where it gets really interesting:
""In the case of the North American salamanders, what was found was that they have bacteria living on their skin that produce peptides that are lethal to the amphibian chytrid fungus," says Dr Church.
"And those bacteria might be able to be transplanted to other species that can't fight off the fungus."
This is a line of research that is very much in play in laboratories around the world.
It appears likely now that studies of the Japanese giant salamander can expand the number of chytrid-fighting bacteria known to science, and so extend the options for developing treatments for an infection that currently cannot be controlled in the wild.
But that can only come to pass if the giant salamanders endure; something that is not guaranteed, with the challenges they face in modern Japan including, perhaps, new strains of chytrid itself.
There is as yet no modern hero able to still the pace of habitat loss or prevent invasion from rival species."
Awesome videos and more at the article.