Illustration by Hill published Shaw (1802) General Zoology or Systematic Natural History, volume Amphibia
Madison JD, LaBumbard B, Woodhams DC. Shotgun metagenomics captures more microbial diversity than targeted 16S rRNA gene sequencing for field specimens and preserved museum specimens. PLoS One, 18(9): e0291540.
We discovered that Bsal caused infection in 74% and mortality in 35% of species tested. Both salamanders and frogs became infected and developed Bsal chytridiomycosis.
Gray MJ, Carter ED, Cusaac JPD, Peterson AC, Whetstone RD*, Hertz A, Bletz MC , Woodhams DC, Piovia-Scott J, Romansic J, Olea GP, Hardman R , McCusker CD, Miller DL. 2023. Broad host susceptibility of North American amphibian species to Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans suggests high invasion potential. Nature Communications, 14(1):3270.
Bd metabolites induce protective skin bacterial response in tadpoles.
Woodhams lab contributes to three articles in theme issue of Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B.
Pereira KE, Bletz MC, McCartney JA, Woodhams DC, Woodley SK. 2023. Effects of corticosterone on immunity and the skin microbiome of Eastern Newts (Notophthalmus viridescens). Philosophical Transactions B. 378(1882):20220120.
doi: 10.1098/rstb.2022.0120.
Miller A, Gass J, Chul Jo M, Bishop L, Petereit J, Woodhams DC, Voyles J. 2023. Gnotobiotic larvae as a tool to investigate influence of the microbiome on the development of the amphibian immune system. Philosophical Transactions B. 378(1882): 20220125.
doi: 10.1098/rstb.2022.0125
Siomoko SA, Greenspan SE, Barnett KM, Neely WJ, Chtarbanova S, Woodhams DC, McMahon TA, Becker CG. 2023. Selection of an anti-pathogen skin microbiome following prophylaxis treatment in an amphibian model system. Philosophical Transactions B. 378(1882):20220126. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2022.0126
An update to this study, “Detecting Corticosterone utilizing Epidermal Mucus Swabs in Notophthalmus viridescens viridescens” by Victor Quadros, Brady Inman, Michael Romero, and Douglas C. Woodhams will be presented at the Amphibian Disease Meeting in Nashville on November 11, 2023.
Nature Microbiology publishes a joint review encompassing the careful and responsible management of ecosystem resources using the microbiome (termed microbiome stewardship) to rehabilitate organisms and ecosystem functions.
Peixoto RS, Voolstra CR, Sweet M, Duarte CM, Carvalho S, Villela H, Lunshof JE, Gram L, Woodhams DC, Walter J, Roik A, Hentschel U, Vega Thurber R, Daisley B, Ushijima B, Daffonchio D, Costa R, Keller-Costa T, Bowman JS, Rosado AS, Reid G, Mason CE, Walke JB, Thomas T, Berg G. (2022) Harnessing the microbiome to prevent global biodiversity loss. Nature Microbiology.
We highlight that targeted habitat-restoration strategies aiming to connect multiple classes of natural habitats (e.g. terrestrial–freshwater, terrestrial–marine, marine–freshwater) could enhance priming of the vertebrate immune system through repeated low-load exposure to enzootic pathogens and reduced stress-induced immunosuppression.
Becker CG, Greenspan SE, Martins RA, Lyra ML, Prist P, Metzger JP, São Pedro V, Haddad CFB, Le Sage EH, Woodhams DC, Savage AE. Habitat split as a driver of disease in amphibians. Biological Reviews.
In a new study published in Animal Microbiome, the Woodhams lab contributed to the discovery that threatened amphibians carried lower skin bacterial diversity, after accounting for key environmental and host factors. The consistency of our findings across continents suggests the broad scale at which low bacteriome diversity may compromise pathogen defenses in species already burdened with the threat of extinction.
Greenspan SE, Peloso P, Fuentes-Gonzalez JA, Bletz M, Lyra ML, Machado IF, Martins RA, Medina D, Moura-Campos D, Neely WJ, Preuss J, Sturaro MJ, Vaz RI, Navas CA, Felipe Toledo L, Tozetti AM , Vences M, Woodhams DC, Haddad CFB, Pienaar J , Becker CG. 2022. Low microbiome diversity in threatened amphibians from two biodiversity hotspots. Animal Microbiome, (2022) 4:69.
Congratulations to graduate students finishing in 2022 and advancing their careers. Dr. Brandon LaBumbard (now at Arcaea), Aura Muñiz (Ph.D. student at Purdue University), and Julia McCartney (now at GRO Bio).
Project Titles
LaBumbard: Host-Pathogen Interactions in a Changing World: Microbes, Mucosal Defenses, and Multiple Hosts
Muñiz: MECHANISMS OF PATHOGEN RESISTANCE: UNDERSTANDING HOST ASSOCIATED DEFENSES OF LITHOBATES PIPIENS AGAINST THE AMPHIBIAN CHYTRID FUNGI
McCartney: FOOL ME ONCE: CHARACTERIZING THE RESPONSE OF NOTOPHTHALMUS VIRIDESCENS TO MULTIPLE EXPOSURES OF BATRACHOCHYTRIUM SALAMANDRIVORANS
To facilitate creative disease ecology research, and to encourage compassionate solutions from the next generation of conservation researchers,
By not attending to the holobiont, reductionist lab experiments may misconstrue outcomes affecting collectives such as populations, communities, or species.
By focusing on wholistic natural relationships over reductionist approaches we believe we can attain more rapid progress toward disease mitigation and personalized medicine.