Into the Heart of an Epidemic: a US-Brazil Collaboration for Integrative Studies of the Amphibian-Killing Fungus in Brazil

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This award supports planning meetings between several US researchers (representing the University of Michigan, Cornell University, and the University of Maine) and Brazilian colleagues (from the Universidade de Campinas and the Universidade Federal de Alagoas). The goal is to generate preliminary data for studies of the ecology and evolution of the amphibian-killing fungus, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), in the Atlantic Coastal Forest of Brazil. Amphibian diversity of Brazil is unparalleled at nearly 900 species, of which more than 500 occur in the less than 10% of the original Atlantic Forest that remains. Causes of species declines in the Atlantic Forest include habitat destruction and invasive species, but the contribution of the fungal disease (chytridiomycosis), which has caused global amphibian declines, is uncertain. Multiple labs are independently researching the biology of chytridiomycosis in Brazil, with initial results verifying that the disease is widespread and evidence suggesting that the genetic diversity of the pathogen in Brazil is greater than in any other country sampled to date. The Brazilian collaborators bring varied experience on chytridiomycosis in Brazil, in particular, fungal biology, amphibian evolution, amphibian ecology, and microbiology. This recently emerging amphibian fungal disease is a modern problem with little precedent (chytridiomycosis is the first vertebrate pathogen known from the phylum Chytridiomycota), and therefore a successful research strategy must include integrative approaches, combining sub-disciplines of biology that rarely interact with each other. Two meetings, one in the US and one in Brazil, are planned to bring together faculty and student researchers from the five participating laboratories.Additional funding for this activity from Brazil will permit the establishment of disease detection and quantification tools, the first such capabilities in Brazil, where the awareness and response to this invading pathogen is increasing. It will also permit seamless collaborations between Bd researchers in the two countries, by equalizing technical capabilities at US and Brazilian collaborating universities and maintaining ties among collaborating students and faculty. Numerous early-career scientists will participate in this collaborative effort. In particular, this project will give US Ph.D. students the opportunity to receive interdisciplinary training in disease ecology and be mentored by Brazilian colleagues with expertise in tropical amphibian ecology, taxonomy, and microbiology. Students in both countries will benefit from training in methods in genetics and disease dynamics, and participate directly in the development of international integrative collaborations.