Sperm collection and storage for the sustainable management of amphibian biodiversity

Current rates of biodiversity loss pose an unprecedented challenge to the conservation community, particularly with amphibians and freshwater fish as the most threatened vertebrates. An increasing number of environmental challenges, including habitat loss, pathogens, and global warming, demand a global response toward the sustainable management of ecosystems and their biodiversity. Conservation Breeding Programs (CBPs) are needed for the sustainable management of amphibian species threatened with extinction. CBPs support species survival while increasing public awareness and political influence. Current CBPs only cater for 10% of the almost 500 amphibian species in need. However, the use of sperm storage to increase efficiency and reliability, along with an increased number of CBPs, offer the potential to significantly reduce species loss. The establishment and refinement of techniques over the last two decades, for the collection and storage of amphibian spermatozoa, gives confidence for their use in CBPs and other biotechnical applications. Cryopreserved spermatozoa has produced breeding pairs of frogs and salamanders and the stage is set for Lifecycle Proof of Concept Programs that use cryopreserved sperm in CBPs along with repopulation, supplementation, and translocation programs. The application of cryopreserved sperm in CBPs, is complimentary to but separate from archival gene banking and general cell and tissue storage. However, where appropriate amphibian sperm banking should be integrated into other global biobanking projects, especially those for fish, and those that include the use of cryopreserved material for genomics and other research. Research over a broader range of amphibian species, and more uniformity in experimental methodology, is needed to inform both theory and application. Genomics is revolutionising our understanding of biological processes and increasingly guiding species conservation through the identification of evolutionary significant units as the conservation focus, and through revealing the intimate relationship between evolutionary history and sperm physiology that ultimately affects the amenability of sperm to refrigerated or frozen storage. In the present review we provide a nascent phylogenetic framework for integration with other research lines to further the potential of amphibian sperm banking.

Antileishmanial constituents of the Panamanian endophytic fungus Edenia sp

Bioassay-directed fractionation of extracts from the fermentation broth and mycelium of the fungus Edenia sp. led tothe isolation of five antileishmanial compounds, preussomerin EG1 (1), palmarumycin CP2 (2), palmarumycin CP17 (3), palmarumycin CP18 (4), and CJ-12,371 (5). Compounds 3 and 4 are new natural products, and this is only the second report of compound 1. The structures of compounds 1-5 were established by spectroscopic analyses (HRMS and NMR). All metabolites caused significant inhibition of the growth of Leishmania donoVani in the amastigote form, with IC50 values of 0.12, 3.93, 1.34, 0.62, and 8.40 microM, respectively. Compounds 1-5 were inactive when tested against Plasmodium falciparum or Trypanasoma cruzi at a concentration of 10 microg/mL, indicating that they have selective activity against Leishmania parasites. Compounds 1-5 showed weak cytotoxicity to Vero cells (IC50 of 9, 162, 174, 152, and 150 microM, respectively); however, the therapeutic window of these compounds is quite significant with 75, 41, 130, 245, and 18 times (respectively) more antileishmanial activity than cytotoxicity.