Frog spore skin#

In the second, we applied a cocktail with a consortium of bacteria that were already producing antifungal metabolites and were isolated from golden frogs, so we knew they could survive on their skin.

Frog spore skin#

In the first, we applied a singular type of bacteria to the frogs’ skin that was genetically modified to produce greater amounts of anti-fungal metabolites.

We set up two experiments to test our hypothesis. How did you genetically modify the bacteria? In other words, we wanted these bacteria to serve as a “living pharmacy” that would be a permanent fixture on the frogs’ skin and protect them from chytrid for a long time. We hoped that by putting genetically modified core-skin microbes back on the frogs’ skin that they would thrive and produce anti-fungal chemicals indefinitely. Could we genetically engineer a bacteria that was already well-adapted to survive on a Panamanian golden frog’s skin to produce greater amounts of the anti-fungal metabolite? Unfortunately, neither of those protected Panamanian golden frogs from the disease, possibly because there were not enough of them to have a protective effect.Īnother idea-a very technically challenging one-had also been circulating in the frog community for many years. We tried anti-fungal probiotic experiments in the past-one using a bacteria found on salamander skin, and others from Panamanian frogs.

We’ve been trying to develop a probiotic cure for the amphibian chytrid fungus for well over a decade-since 2008. How did the idea to develop a probiotic cure for chytrid come about?