University of Pittsburgh Department of Biological Sciences Presents
E&E Wednesday Noon Seminars 2017-2018
Graduate student Veronica Saenz - University of Pittsburgh
Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) is a fungus that causes the disease chytridiomycosis, responsible for hundreds of amphibians declines around the world. Climate change alters host-disease dynamics especially in ectothermic hosts like amphibians that are particularly susceptible to temperature shifts. I will test the impact of multiple stressors including desiccation and higher temperatures on the development of amphibian immune defenses. I hypothesize that frogs that develop in a pond under conditions predicted by climate change (i.e. less precipitation and higher temperatures), will metamorphose with a reduced/compromised innate immune system. The key aims of this project are to: (1) Determine how pond drying affect an amphibian’s ability to produce cutaneous immune defenses and susceptibility to Bd infection (2) Determine the effects of a higher temperature during larval development on L. pipiens AMPs production and composition and subsequent susceptibility to Bd infection.
Wednesday, March 28, 2018
A219B Langley Hall
12:00 PM Seminar