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Byrne AQ. What Can Frogs Teach Us about Resilience? Adaptive Renewal in Amphibian and Academic Ecosystems. Integr Comp Biol 2024; 64:795-806. [PMID: 38821517 DOI: 10.1093/icb/icae058] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/27/2024] [Revised: 04/30/2024] [Accepted: 05/20/2024] [Indexed: 06/02/2024] Open
Abstract
Examples of resilience in nature give us hope amid a growing biodiversity crisis. While resilience has many definitions across disciplines, here I discuss resilience as the ability to continue to adapt and persist. Naturally, as biologists, we seek to uncover the underlying mechanisms that can help us explain the secrets of resilience across scales, from individuals to species to ecosystems and beyond. Perhaps we also ponder what the secrets to resilience are in our own lives, in our own research practices, and academic communities. In this paper, I highlight insights gained through studies of amphibian resilience following a global disease outbreak to uncover shared patterns and processes linked to resilience across amphibian communities. I also reflect on how classical resilience heuristics could be more broadly applied to these processes and to our own academic communities. Focusing on the amphibian systems that I have worked in-the Golden Frogs of Panama (Atelopus zeteki/varius) and the Mountain Yellow-Legged Frogs of California (Rana muscosa/sierrae)-I highlight shared and unique characteristics of resilience across scales and systems and discuss how these relate to adaptive renewal cycles. Reflecting on this work and previous resilience scholarship, I also offer my own thoughts about academia and consider what lessons we could take from mapping our own adaptive trajectories and addressing threats to our own community resilience.
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Affiliation(s)
- Allison Q Byrne
- Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
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Le Sage EH, Reinert LK, Ohmer MEB, LaBumbard BC, Altman KA, Brannelly LA, Latella I, McDonnell NB, Saenz V, Walsman JC, Wilber MQ, Woodhams DC, Voyles J, Richards-Zawacki CL, Rollins-Smith LA. Diverse Relationships between Batrachochytrium Infections and Antimicrobial Peptide Defenses Across Leopard Frog Populations. Integr Comp Biol 2024; 64:921-931. [PMID: 39090981 DOI: 10.1093/icb/icae130] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/13/2024] [Revised: 07/23/2024] [Accepted: 07/28/2024] [Indexed: 08/04/2024] Open
Abstract
Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) play a fundamental role in the innate defense against microbial pathogens, as well as other immune and non-immune functions. Their role in amphibian skin defense against the pathogenic fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) is exemplified by experiments in which depletion of host's stored AMPs increases mortality from infection. Yet, the question remains whether there are generalizable patterns of negative or positive correlations between stored AMP defenses and the probability of infection or infection intensity across populations and species. This study aims to expand on prior field studies of AMP quantities and compositions by correlating stored defenses with an estimated risk of Bd exposure (prevalence and mean infection intensity in each survey) in five locations across the United States and a total of three species. In all locations, known AMPs correlated with the ability of recovered secretions to inhibit Bd in vitro. We found that stored AMP defenses were generally unrelated to Bd infection except in one location where the relative intensity of known AMPs was lower in secretions from infected frogs. In all other locations, known AMP relative intensities were higher in infected frogs. Stored peptide quantity was either positively or negatively correlated with Bd exposure risk. Thus, future experiments coupled with organismal modeling can elucidate whether Bd infection affects secretion/synthesis and will provide insight into how to interpret amphibian ecoimmunology studies of AMPs. We also demonstrate that future AMP isolating and sequencing studies can focus efforts by correlating mass spectrometry peaks to inhibitory capacity using linear decomposition modeling.
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Affiliation(s)
- Emily H Le Sage
- Department of Pathology, Microbiology, and Immunology, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, TN 37232, USA
| | - Laura K Reinert
- Department of Pathology, Microbiology, and Immunology, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, TN 37232, USA
| | - Michel E B Ohmer
- Department of Biology, University of Mississippi, Oxford, MS 38677, USA
| | | | - Karie A Altman
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA
| | - Laura A Brannelly
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA
- Faculty of Science, Melbourne Veterinary School, The University of Melbourne, Werribee, Victoria 3030, Australia
| | - Ian Latella
- Department of Biology, University of Nevada, Reno, NV 89557, USA
| | - Nina B McDonnell
- Department of Biology, University of Massachusetts, Boston, MA 02125, USA
| | - Veronica Saenz
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA
| | - Jason C Walsman
- Earth Research Institute, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA
| | - Mark Q Wilber
- School of Natural Resources, University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture, Knoxville, TN 37996, USA
| | - Douglas C Woodhams
- Department of Biology, University of Massachusetts, Boston, MA 02125, USA
| | - Jamie Voyles
- Department of Biology, University of Nevada, Reno, NV 89557, USA
| | | | - Louise A Rollins-Smith
- Department of Pathology, Microbiology, and Immunology, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, TN 37232, USA
- Department of Pediatrics, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, TN 37232, USA
- Department of Biological Sciences, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37235, USA
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Miller AJ, Gass J, Jo MC, Bishop L, Petereit J, Woodhams DC, Voyles J. Towards the generation of gnotobiotic larvae as a tool to investigate the influence of the microbiome on the development of the amphibian immune system. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2023; 378:20220125. [PMID: 37305911 PMCID: PMC10258664 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2022.0125] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/01/2022] [Accepted: 11/28/2022] [Indexed: 06/13/2023] Open
Abstract
The immune equilibrium model suggests that exposure to microbes during early life primes immune responses for pathogen exposure later in life. While recent studies using a range of gnotobiotic (germ-free) model organisms offer support for this theory, we currently lack a tractable model system for investigating the influence of the microbiome on immune system development. Here, we used an amphibian species (Xenopus laevis) to investigate the importance of the microbiome in larval development and susceptibility to infectious disease later in life. We found that experimental reductions of the microbiome during embryonic and larval stages effectively reduced microbial richness, diversity and altered community composition in tadpoles prior to metamorphosis. In addition, our antimicrobial treatments resulted in few negative effects on larval development, body condition, or survival to metamorphosis. However, contrary to our predictions, our antimicrobial treatments did not alter susceptibility to the lethal fungal pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) in the adult life stage. While our treatments to reduce the microbiome during early development did not play a critical role in determining susceptibility to disease caused by Bd in X. laevis, they nevertheless indicate that developing a gnotobiotic amphibian model system may be highly useful for future immunological investigations. This article is part of the theme issue 'Amphibian immunity: stress, disease and ecoimmunology'.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Jordan Gass
- Department of Biology, University of Nevada, Reno, NV 89557, USA
| | - Myung Chul Jo
- Environmental Health and Safety, University of Nevada, Reno, NV 89557, USA
| | - Lucas Bishop
- Nevada Bioinformatics Center, University of Nevada, Reno, NV 89557, USA
| | - Juli Petereit
- Nevada Bioinformatics Center, University of Nevada, Reno, NV 89557, USA
| | | | - Jamie Voyles
- Department of Biology, University of Nevada, Reno, NV 89557, USA
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Assis VR, Titon SCM, Voyles J. Ecoimmunology: What Unconventional Organisms Tell Us after Two Decades. Integr Comp Biol 2022; 62:icac148. [PMID: 36250609 DOI: 10.1093/icb/icac148] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/15/2022] [Revised: 09/13/2022] [Accepted: 09/18/2022] [Indexed: 02/18/2024] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Vania R Assis
- Departamento de Fisiologia, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo SP 05508-090, Brasil
| | - Stefanny C M Titon
- Departamento de Fisiologia, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo SP 05508-090, Brasil
| | - Jamie Voyles
- Department of Biology, University of Nevada, Reno, Reno, NV 89557, USA
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