population genetics: common frogs, disease and temporary ponds

For the past few months I've been working in the lab of Dr Amber Griffiths assisting with research for both Amber and Dr Ilya Maclean focusing on population genetics in common frogs. It's been such an awesome job that has enabled me to learn an insane amount about the workings of a molecular lab!! The two main projects I have been working on are looking at measures of genetic diversity of common frog populations in temporary and permanent ponds on the lizard peninsula and assisting a PhD student looking at the impact of ranavirus on population genetics of common frogs.

Ranavirus is impacting amphibians worldwide and has been implicated in the decline of common frog populations in the UK. Recent work suggests frogs in infected ponds may be mating assortatively and the project I have been assisting on has been looking to determine whether this is the case, to determine which genes selection is acting upon in wild populations and to determine the fitness benefits of parental mate choice in terms of tadpole survival in ranavirus infection trials.

The second project I have been focusing on is looking at the population genetics of common frogs on the lizard peninsula. The frogs here are rather unusual in that breeding occurs twice a year - both in Spring (in permanent ponds), as would be expected, but also in late Autumn (in temporary ponds), which is rather odd for amphibians. Researchers collected tadpoles from these two kinds of ponds and it was my job to conduct microsatellite genotyping of these tadpoles to work out how genetically different they were between the two pond types!