Panama Golden frogs, Atelopus zeteki, are extinct in the wild and in captive breeding programs. Probiotic bacteria could improve disease resistance. photo by Doug Woodhams
Microbial Ecology publishes on bacterial chemical compounds that inhibit a fungal pathogen in a new article by Dr. Douglas C. Woodhams, students, and collaborators from Germany, Colombia, the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama, and Villanova University.
Woodhams DC, LaBumbard BC, Barnhart KL, Becker MH, Bletz MC, Escobar LA, Flechas SV, Forman ME, Iannetta AA, Joyce MD, Rabemananjara F, Gratwicke B, Vences M, Minbiole KPC. (2018) Prodigiosin, violacein, and volatile organic compounds produced by widespread cutaneous bacteria of amphibians can inhibit two Batrachochytrium fungal pathogens. Microbial Ecology, 75(4):1049-1062. doi: 10.1007/s00248-017-1095-7