Emerging fungal pathogens pose a greater threat to biodiversity than any other parasitic¹ group, causing population declines of amphibians², bats, corals, bees and snakes. New research from the University of South Florida published in the journal Nature reveals that amphibians can acquire behavioral or immunological resistance to a deadly chytrid（壶菌） fungus⁴ implicated⁵ in global amphibian³ population declines. "Acquired resistance is important because it is the basis of vaccination⁶ campaigns based on 'herd⁷ immunity⁸', where immunization of a subset of individuals protects all from a pathogen," said Jason Rohr, an associate professor of integrative biology who led the research team with Taegan McMahon, a USF alumnus（男校友） who is now an assistant professor of biology at the University of Tampa.

 

One experiment in the study revealed that after just one exposure to the chytrid fungus, frogs learned to avoid the deadly pathogen.

 

In subsequent experiments in which frogs could not avoid the fungus, frog immune responses improved with each fungal exposure and infection clearance⁹, significantly reducing fungal growth and increasing the likelihood that the frogs survived subsequent chytrid infections.

 

"The amphibian chytrid fungus suppresses immune responses of amphibian hosts, so many researchers doubted that amphibians could acquire effective immunity against this pathogen," Rohr said. "However, our results suggest that amphibians can acquire immunological resistance that overcomes chytrid-induced immunosuppression（免疫抑制） and increases their survival."

 

Rohr also noted¹⁰ that "variation in the degree of acquired resistance might partly explain why fungal pathogens cause extinctions of some animal populations but not others."

 

"The discovery of immunological resistance to this pathogenic fungus is an exciting fundamental breakthrough that offers hope, and a critical tool for dealing¹¹ with the global epidemic¹² affecting wild amphibian populations," says Liz Blood, program officer in the National Science Foundation's Directorate for Biological Sciences, which funded the research through its MacroSystems Biology Program.

 

Conservationists have collected hundreds of amphibian species threatened by the fungus and are maintaining them in captivity¹³ with the hope to someday re-establish them in the wild. However, reintroduction efforts so far have failed because of the persistence¹⁴ of the fungus at collection sites.

 

"A particularly exciting result from our research was that amphibian exposure to dead chytrid induced a similar magnitude of acquired resistance as exposure to the live fungus," McMahon said.

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