Increasing comparative genomic resources for amphibians

The genomics revolution has spurred movements to sequence the genomes of all life on earth. This has led to a flurry of genomes in the past five years – everything from redwood trees to gorillas. This revolution has also piqued the interest of conservation biologists who are fighting the ever-increasing extinction crisis.

Genomic information can be used for species management to ensure the best approaches are used for maintaining or increasing genetic diversity. More recently this information is being used for more directed approaches to help promote characteristics that allow species to persist with intractable threats like climate change and disease.

This MDAP collaboration will be used to build computational and genomics resources for amphibians. Amphibians are the most imperiled group of vertebrates and face many threats such as the devastating disease, chytridiomycosis. Despite their conservation value, the development of genomic resources for amphibians has lagged behind other vertebrates. This is because their unusually large genomes are difficult to assemble and work with. This collaboration, between Dr Kosch’s team at One Health Research Group and MDAP, will help build the critical resources to identify gene targets for genetic intervention to help restore amphibians threatened by chytridiomycosis to the wild.