Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
Volume 286, Issue 1904, Pages -Publisher
ROYAL SOC
DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2019.0833
Keywords
amphibian population declines; chytridiomycosis; coevolution; disease resistance; host-parasite dynamics; pathogen virulence
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Funding
- National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) - Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea [2015R1D1A01057282]
- Ministry of Science, ICT, and Future Planning of the Republic of Korea [2018R1A2B6006833]
- National Research Foundation of Korea [2018R1A2B6006833] Funding Source: Korea Institute of Science & Technology Information (KISTI), National Science & Technology Information Service (NTIS)
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Many amphibian species around the world, except in Asia, suffer morbidity and mortality when infected by the emerging infectious pathogen Bartrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd). A lineage of the amphibian chytrid fungus isolated from South Korean amphibians (BdAsia-1) is evolutionarily basal to recombinant global pandemic lineages (BdGPL) associated with worldwide amphibian population declines. In Asia, the Bd pathogen and its amphibian hosts have coevolved over 100 years or more. Thus, resilience of Asian amphibian populations to infection might result from attenuated virulence of endemic Bd lineages, evolved immunity to the pathogen or both. We compared susceptibilities of an Australasian amphibian, Liroria caerulea, known to lack resistance to BdGPL, with those of three Korean species, Bufo gargarizans, Bombina orientalis and Hyla japonica, after inoculation with BdAsia-1, BdGPL or a blank solution. Subjects became infected in all experimental treatments but Korean species rapidly cleared themselves of infection, regardless of Bd lineage. They survived with no apparent secondary effects. By contrast, L. caerulea, after infection by either BdAsia-1 or BdGPL, suffered deteriorating body condition and carried progressively higher Bd loads over time. Subsequently, most subjects died. Comparing their effects on L. caerulea, BdAsia-1 induced more rapid disease progression than BdGPL. The results suggest that genomic recombination with other lineages was not necessary for the ancestral Bd lineage to evolve hypervirulence over its long period of coevolution with amphibian hosts. The pathogen's virulence may have driven strong selection for immune responses in endemic Asian amphibian host species.
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