Archive for the News Category

Diversity-function relationships are a frontier of ecology research.  Here, we look at the function of bacterial communities to suppress chytrid fungus, and they do this better when at higher diversity.

Piovia-Scott J, Rejmanek D, Woodhams DC, Worth SJ, Kenny H, McKenzie V, Lawler SP, Foley JE. (2017) Greater species richness of bacterial skin symbionts better suppresses the amphibian fungal pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis. Microbial Ecology, 74(1):217-226.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00248-016-0916-4

Ph.D. student Brandon LaBumbard teaches a January term research immersion course for the National Institute of Health funded Initiative for Maximizing Student Development. https://www.umb.edu/academics/csm/biology/beyond_the_classroom/initiative_for_maximizing_student_development

Lindsey Raymond presented her Honors in Biology research at the Scientific Communication for Undergraduates poster session. The project: Growth Inhibition of Pathogenic Fungi Caused by Bacterial Volatile Organic Compounds. Lindsey Raymond, Brandon LaBumbard, and Douglas C. Woodhams.

Amanda Peters was selected as a Coasts and Communities IGERT fellow and joins the Woodhams lab in August 2016.  Amanda is graduating from Washington College in Maryland with a double major in Biology and Environmental Science. She will be involved on the project entitled, “Linking Microbiota and Ecotoxicology with Mosquito-Borne Disease Risk” supported by a seed grant from the Office of Research, Strategic Initiatives and Graduate Studies.

Read more about Amanda Peters in the Woodhams Lab People page.

Kelly Barnhart was awarded $1000 from the Chicago Herpetological Society for her research on “Priming Immune Function of Critically Endangered Panamanian Golden Frogs Prior to Reintroduction.”

Brandon LaBumbard will be attending the JMIH: Joint Meeting of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists from July 6-10 in New Orleans and presenting on “Inhibition of pathogenic fungi using volatile organic compounds produced by bacteria” with funding from the UMass Boston Lipke travel award.

Lindsey Raymond was accepted into the Scientific Communication for Undergraduates course sponsored by the NIH’s National Research Mentoring Network and will present her research on May 5.

Trong Nguyen and Kate Seigars completed a semester project supported by the McCone and Alumni research fund on “Testing viability assays of Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis.”

Dr. Andreas Hertz returned from his research trip to Panama studying “Amphibian Mucosal Defenses against an Emerging Fungal Disease: testing for Selection in Recovering populations,” supported by the UMass Boston Office of Global Programs.

In this new article in EcoHealth, Dr. Woodhams with collaborators at University of Colorado Boulder suggests that antimicrobial peptide defenses do not play a significant role in defending larval amphibians against trematode cercariae, but that they could be one mechanism helping to prevent infection of post-metamorphic amphibians, particularly for highly aquatic species.

Calhoun DM, Woodhams DC, Howard C, LaFonte BE, Gregory JR, Johnson PT. Role of Antimicrobial Peptides in Amphibian Defense Against Trematode Infection. (2016) EcoHealth.

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A deadly fungus has been spreading throughout the salamander population around the globe, vexing conservationists and pet owners alike.The chytrid fungus has spread from Asia to the Netherlands and Germany through the pet trade, and could reach North America the same way. Scientists fear that it will kill off rare salamanders in the wild, posing a major risk to the biodiversity of salamander populations in North America.  In a study published recently in Trends in Microbiology, UMass Boston Biology Professor Doug Woodhams has uncovered a method that might help save species of salamanders and frogs from the fungus – using good bacteria to help salamanders fight off chytrid fungal infection…by Anna Fisher-Pinkert.

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Dr. Woodhams contributed to strategic planning for research and monitoring for the salamander chytrid (Bsal) at a workshop headed by the Powell Center, United States Geological Survey. The workshop was the first international meeting to address the threat of Bsal to salamander populations in the United States, with more than 30 participants from U.S. conservation and resource management agencies (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. National Park Service, and Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies) and academic research institutions in Australia, the Netherlands, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Grant EHC, Muths E, Katz RA, Canessa S, Adam MJ, Ballard JR, Berger L, Briggs CJ, Coleman J, Gray MJ, Harris MC, Harris RN, Hossack B, Huyvaert KP, Kolby JE, Lips KR, Lovich RE, McCallum HI, Mendelson JR, Nanjappa P, Olson DH, Powers JG, Richgels KLD, Russell RE, Schmidt BR, Spitzen-van der Sluijs A, Watry MK, Woodhams DC, White CL. (2015) Salamander chytrid fungus (Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans) in the United States—Developing research, monitoring, and management strategies: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2015–1233, 16 p., http://dx.doi.org/10.3133/ofr20151233.

Read this report

Read the USGS press release

Read feature in Science Daily