Oral Presentation Freshwater Sciences 2023

Can metal pollution inhibit the amphibian-killing chytrid fungus in culture? (#36)

Milad Esmaeilbeigi 1 , Simon Clulow 2 , Richard Duncan 2 , Tariq Ezaz 2 , Ben Kefford 1
  1. Centre for Applied Water Science, Institute for Applied Ecology, Faculty of Science and Technology , University of Canberra, Canberra, Bruce, 2617, ACT, Australia
  2. Center for Conservation Ecology and Genomics, Institute for Applied Ecology, Faculty of Science and Technology , University of Canberra, Canberra, Bruce, 2617, ACT, Australia

Amphibian species have declined worldwide with extinctions amounting to the greatest loss of biodiversity of any vertebrate class since the 1970s. A major cause of this decline is infection by an amphibian-killing chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd). Nevertheless, some populations of frogs susceptible to Bd have persisted in environments such as metal-polluted freshwaters where Bd may be more sensitive to metal pollution than frogs. This means that frogs survive better in the presence of Bd in metal polluted relative to unpolluted environments which is consistent with the environmental mismatch hypothesis. Our aim was to quantify the metal tolerance of Bd zoospores in culture (in vitro) using environmentally relevant elevated concentrations (ERECs) of copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), and mixtures of these metals. The response of Bd to Cu and Zn, density of live cells, was assessed every 24 hours up to 96 hours after exposure relative to a metal-free control. Our preliminary results reveal that Bd experienced both concentration and exposure duration-dependent responses to metal exposure. The lowest proportion of live cells were recorded at the highest concentrations (15 and 2000 ยตg/L Cu and Zn, respectively). The highest metal concentrations had approximately 10% live cells compared with 90% in the control after 96 hours. Mixed metals also showed synergistic effects on Bd approximately 10- and 30-fold higher than the sum of singular effects of metals, at the lowest and highest concentrations, respectively. Therefore, both Cu and Zn were shown to be toxic to Bd at ERECs, and zoospores could not tolerate metals in culture over a 96-hr period. Our findings support the hypothesis that Bd is metal sensitive, and its tolerance could be impacted by ERECs of metals. Future experiments are required to assess the potential beneficial impacts of these metals on frogs to persist in the presence of Bd.