Museum of Southwestern Biology and Department of Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87131, USA.
These authors contributed equally to this study.
J Wildl Dis. 2024 Oct 1;60(4):1004-1010. doi: 10.7589/JWD-D-24-00025.
Natural history collections have long served as the foundation for understanding our planet's biodiversity, yet they remain a largely untapped resource for wildlife disease studies. Extended specimens include multiple data types and specimen preparations that capture the phenotype and genotype of an organism and its symbionts-but preserved tissues may not always be optimized for downstream detection of various pathogens. Frogs are infected by an array of pathogens including Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), Ranavirus (Rv), and Amphibian Perkinsea (Pr), which provides the opportunity to study differences in detection dynamics across tissue types. We used quantitative PCR protocols to screen two tissue types commonly deposited in museum collections, toe clips and liver, from two closely related host species, Rana catesbeiana and Rana clamitans. We compared Bd, Rv, and Pr infection prevalence and intensity between species and tissue types and found no significant difference in prevalence between species, but Bd intensity was higher in R. clamitans than R. catesbeiana. Toe tissue exhibited significantly higher Bd infection loads and was more useful than liver for detecting Bd infections. In contrast, Rv was detected from more liver than toe tissues, but the difference was not statistically significant. Our results support the use of extended specimen collections in amphibian disease studies and demonstrate that broader tissue sampling at the time of specimen preparation can maximize their utility for downstream multipathogen detection.
自然历史收藏长期以来一直是了解我们星球生物多样性的基础，但它们仍然是野生动物疾病研究的一个很大程度上未被开发的资源。扩展标本包括多种数据类型和标本制备，可捕获生物体及其共生体的表型和基因型-但保存的组织并不总是针对各种病原体的下游检测进行优化。青蛙感染了一系列病原体，包括蛙壶菌（Bd）、蛙病毒（Rv）和两栖动物珀金菌（Pr），这为研究不同组织类型的检测动态差异提供了机会。我们使用定量 PCR 方案筛选了两种通常存放在博物馆收藏中的组织类型，即趾夹和肝脏，来自两个密切相关的宿主物种，即牛蛙和蟾蜍。我们比较了物种和组织类型之间的 Bd、Rv 和 Pr 感染的流行率和强度，发现物种之间的流行率没有显著差异，但 Bd 在蟾蜍中的强度高于牛蛙。趾组织表现出明显更高的 Bd 感染负荷，并且比肝脏更有助于检测 Bd 感染。相比之下，Rv 从更多的肝脏中检测到，而不是从脚趾组织中检测到，但差异不具有统计学意义。我们的研究结果支持在两栖动物疾病研究中使用扩展标本收藏，并表明在标本制备时进行更广泛的组织采样可以最大限度地提高它们用于下游多病原体检测的效用。
