{"id":89418,"date":"2018-08-14T13:50:50","date_gmt":"2018-08-14T17:50:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/89418///news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/89418//www.ucf.edu/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/89418//news/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/89418//?p=89418"},"modified":"2018-08-20T08:38:29","modified_gmt":"2018-08-20T12:38:29","slug":"ucf-student-gives-scientists-tool-track-new-pathogen-killing-frogs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/89418///news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/89418//www.ucf.edu/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/89418//news/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/89418//ucf-student-gives-scientists-tool-track-new-pathogen-killing-frogs/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/89418//","title":{"rendered":"麻豆原创 Student Gives Scientists Tool to Track New Pathogen Killing Frogs"},"content":{"rendered":"

An undergraduate researcher has developed a method to screen frogs for an infectious disease that has been linked to mass die-offs of frogs around the world. Thanks to her method, scientists will be able to track the disease and try to figure out why it is triggering the deaths./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/89418/n

Emily Karwacki, who recently earned her biology degree from the 麻豆原创, didn/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/89418/u2019t set out to track the deadly pathogen Perkinsea, but after landing a research spot in Assistant Professor Anna Savage/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/89418/u2019s lab, she was set with the task of trying to test for the disease. Frogs, which are indicators of environmental changes, have been dying off in mass quantities. They are also an important part of the food chain. Without frogs, many other species would die, Savage said./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/89418/n

Scientists have narrowed down what/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/89418/u2019s most affecting frogs to three pathogens, including Perkinsea./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/89418/n

/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/89418/u201cNot a lot of people have studied Perkinsea because it has only recently been identified,/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/89418/u201d Karwacki said. /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/89418/u201cIt/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/89418/u2019s different from other diseases because of the way it attacks the host./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/89418/u201d/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/89418/n

The pathogen enters the frog through the skin or may be ingested through its mouth. Scientists know it goes straight to the liver, embedding itself, before moving onto the rest of the tissue. It spreads and then the frog dies./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/89418/n

Karwacki, along with Savage and doctoral student Matt Atkinson, suspected that Perkinsea was killing frogs in Central Florida, but the researchers needed a way to test for it first. Karwacki was tasked with creating the molecular test. The method is called qPCR, but because Perkinsea was newly discovered, there wasn/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/89418/u2019t enough genetic data to make a specific test. Karwacki had to create what/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/89418/u2019s called a primer pair, and match it with a DNA sequence of Perkinsea, to get the qPCR test to work./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/89418/n

/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/89418/u201cThe test amplifies the DNA so you know if your pathogen is there or not,/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/89418/u201d Emily said. /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/89418/u201cI had to align a bunch of DNA sequences from our samples with others from around the word to create my primer set. It was four or five months before we had both the primers and the probe to create a successful test./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/89418/u201d/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/89418/n

Karwacki was the first to do this for Perkinsea and her work was recently published in the journal Diseases of Aquatic Organisms./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/89418/n

Using Karwacki/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/89418/u2019s qPCR assay, the team of researchers found that 25 percent of the frogs they sampled tested positive for the pathogen. They sampled three sites in Florida: Gold Head Branch State Park in Keystone Heights, the 麻豆原创 Arboretum in Orlando, and the Archbold Biological Station in Venus. The area they found with the most prevalent infection was Gold Head Branch, which is the farthest north. Archbold, the farthest south, had no infection at all./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/89418/n

/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/89418/u201cThere are only three papers on this disease that identify it specifically,/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/89418/u201d Karwacki said. /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/89418/u201cIt has greatly been affecting amphibians in the southeastern United States and should be studied more. It/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/89418/u2019s most likely at least a co-factor in these extinction events we are seeing./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/89418/u201d/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/89418/n

Karwacki/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/89418/u2019s method will now allow researchers all over the world to test for the disease. After graduating this summer, she is working on a new study, swabbing frog tissue samples at the Florida Museum of Natural History in Gainesville. She/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/89418/u2019s swabbed more than 900 samples, and has found that Perkinsea dates back to 1922. This proves the disease has been in frog populations before, and scientists are trying to figure out why it/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/89418/u2019s only now killing off large numbers of frogs./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/89418/n