Abstract
Briefly considered extinct in the wild, the future of the Wyoming toad (Anaxyrus baxteri) continues to rely on captive breeding to supplement the wild population. Given its small natural geographic range and history of rapid population decline at least partly due to fungal disease, investigation of the diversity of key receptor families involved in the host immune response represents an important conservation need. Population decline may have reduced immunogenetic diversity sufficiently to increase the vulnerability of the species to infectious diseases. Here we use comparative transcriptomics to examine the diversity of toll-like receptors and major histocompatibility complex (MHC) sequences across three individual Wyoming toads. We find reduced diversity at MHC genes compared to bufonid species with a similar history of bottleneck events. Our data provide a foundation for future studies that seek to evaluate the genetic diversity of Wyoming toads, identify biomarkers for infectious disease outcomes, and guide breeding strategies to increase genomic variability and wild release successes.
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Data Availability
Transcriptome sequence data has been archived on NCBI as BioProject PRJNA484136; SRA accession numbers SRX4501368 (toad 6691), SRX4501367 (toad 7039); and SRX4501369 (toad 7092); and TSA accession numbers accession numbers GGUS00000000 (toad 6691), GGUR00000000 (toad 7039), GGUQ00000000 (toad 7092). Annotated transcriptome data are archived on Dryad (https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.n2z34tmz9).
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Acknowledgements
We are indebted to the Wyoming Toad Recovery Team for assistance and providing the toads used in this study. We thank Debra Tokarz (North Carolina State University), Iván Rodríguez-Nunez (North Carolina State University), Amanda Kortum (North Carolina State University) and Jacques Robert (University of Rochester Medical Center) for initial sequence analyses and helpful discussions and Karen Gore (North Carolina State University) for chytridiomycosis qPCR. Photograph sources:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:African_clawed_frogs;_Xenopus_laevis.jpg.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bufo-bufo-erdkroete-maennlich-front.jpg.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cane-toad.jpg.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Anaxyrus_baxteri-3.jpg.
Funding
This report was supported by grants from the National Science Foundation (IOS-1755242 to AD and IOS-1755330 to JAY) and by funds from the North Carolina State University Research and Innovation Seed Funding (RISF) Program and from the North Carolina State University Center for Comparative Medicine and Translational Research (CCMTR). H.D.A. and J.R. were supported by a National Institutes of Health Biotechnology Traineeship (T32 GM008776). H.D.A. also was supported by a Joseph E. Pogue Fellowship through the UNC Royster Society of Fellows. D.J.W. was supported by a Graduate Student Fellowship from the Triangle Center for Evolutionary Medicine (TriCEM)/National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent).
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M. Breen, M.K. Stoskopf and J.A. Yoder contributed to the study conception. K.B. Carlson, D.J. Wcisel, H.D. Ackerman, J. Romanet, M. Breen, M.K. Stoskopf, A. Dornburg and J.A. Yoder contributed to the study design. Material preparation and data collection were performed by K.B. Carlson, D.J. Wcisel, H.D. Ackerman, J. Romanet, E.F. Christiansen, J.N. Niemuth, and C. Williams. Data analyses were performed by K.B. Carlson, D.J. Wcisel, H.D. Ackerman, J. Romanet, M. Breen, M.K. Stoskopf, A. Dornburg and J.A. Yoder. The first draft of the manuscript was written by K.B. Carlson, A. Dornburg, and J.A. Yoder. All authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Carlson, K.B., Wcisel, D.J., Ackerman, H.D. et al. Transcriptome annotation reveals minimal immunogenetic diversity among Wyoming toads, Anaxyrus baxteri. Conserv Genet 23, 669–681 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10592-022-01444-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10592-022-01444-8