Projects
Understanding the adaptation of emerging infectious diseases to novel environments: can Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans evolve fast enough to establish maintenance in European amphibian communities? Ghent University
The recent globalisation of travel and trade has increased the international spread of diseases into
naïve ecosystems, with often-disastrous consequences. This was seen in the current European
outbreak of Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans, an Asian amphibian pathogen, which has
decimated populations of fire salamanders (Salamandra salamandra). Seven years on from its
introduction, with few susceptible populations ...
Bsalomics - Identifying the genomic basis of amphibian immunity to Bsal, the emerging infectious disease devastating salamander populations across Europe. Ghent University
Amphibians worldwide are threatened by emerging infectious diseases. This includes the recently discovered invasive fungal pathogen Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans (Bsal), which causes chytridiomycosis and is decimating salamander populations in Europe. Continued spread of Bsal is inevitable, and research on host responses and natural immunity is crucial to predict and mitigate the negative consequences to salamanders and cascading impacts ...
Breaking the silence after the storm: the amphibian response to an emerging infectious disease Ghent University
Counteracting the loss of biodiversity presents one of the defining challenges of our time.
Amphibian declines have become iconic of global extinctions, and two lethal pathogenic chytrid
fungi - Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) and B. salamandrivorans (Bsal) - are implicated among
the main factors driving their demise. The former caused extensive extirpations in frogs, but the
latter emerged recently and is ...
Evolution of a protein pheromone system in newts (Salamandridae) Vrije Universiteit Brussel
SRP (Groeiers): Evolutionary innovations in amphibians: from ecology to molecules Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Theme 1. - Natural History and Evolution - Research leader: Prof. Dr. Franky Bossuyt Majortechnicalspecialization:molecular phylogenetics
Theme 2. - Amphibian Toxinology - Research leader: Prof. Dr. Kim Roelants Major technical ...
Ecology, systematics and evolutionary biology of frog blood parasites in northern KwaZulu-Natal KU Leuven
Blood parasites have been recorded in a variety of vertebrate and invertebrate hosts, inhabiting both aquatic and terrestrial environments. Until this study, only a few blood parasite surveys had been carried out on frogs in sub-Saharan Africa. Thus information on the diversity of these parasites remained limited. To increase our knowledge of frog blood parasites, a large multi-approach study on the diversity, evolutionary biology, and ...
House of Sustainable Transitions Vrije Universiteit Brussel
towards a more sustainable and just society. It is the one-stop shop for sustainability transitions where the challenge
of climate change and biodiversity can be tackled from a systemic and integrated perspective, where sustainability
encompasses environmental as well as social and economic aspects. With ...