Chytrid fungus: A major threat to frogs
The division Chytridiomycota includes distinctive fungal species, known as the chytrid fungi. These fungi live in a watery environment and appear similar to some algae. One of the most striking features of these fungi are their asexual spores and gametes, which are motile due to the existence of a single posteriorly directed flagellum.
While chytrid fungi are of no concern to medical mycologists and infectious diseases specialists owing to their lack of human pathogenicity, they can be significant in terms of their occurence in cold-blooded animals. Chytrid fungi, specifically
Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, may cause zoonoses in amphibians. This fungus was identified in 1998 as the etiologic agent of amphibian disease in Australia and central America, and in New Zealand during 1999. It is now thought to be one of the possible causes of a recent observed decline in frog populations. The Archey’s frog (
Leiopelma archeyi) population in New Zealand was recently found to be infected with
B. dendrobatidis.
Go to the article. Archey’s frog, a distinctive green and golden-brown frog species, lives high in the Coromandel Ranges of New Zealand. Although the innate immune system of the frog is quite robust,
B. dendrobatidis is able to kill most of the frogs that it infects. Following infection, the frog initially displays strange motor behaviours and unbalanced movement. Finally, the frog becomes immobile and is paralysed in unnatural positions. This raises the fear that this frog species in New Zealand could disappear because of this fungal infection.
