Authors: E Pearl Symonds Darren J Trott Philip S Bird Paul Mills
Publish Date: 2008/06/21
Volume: 166, Issue: 3, Pages: 143-147
Abstract
Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis is a member of the phylum Chytridiomycota and the causative organism chytridiomycosis a disease of amphibians associated with global population declines and mass mortality events The organism targets keratinforming epithelium in adult and larval amphibians which suggests that keratinolytic activity may be required to infect amphibian hosts To investigate this hypothesis we tested 10 isolates of B dendrobatidis for their ability to grow on a range of keratinsupplemented agars and measured keratolytic enzyme activity using a commercially available kit bioMerieux API ZYM The most dense and fastest growth of isolates were recorded on tryptone agar followed by growth on frog skin agar and the slowest growth recorded on feather meal and boiled snake skin agar Growth patterns were distinctive for each nutrient source All 10 isolates were strongly positive for a range of proteolytic enzymes which may be keratinolytic including trypsin and chymotrypsin These findings support the predilection of B dendrobatidis for amphibian skin
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