Nov 11
Biology Seminar: Grace Vaziri: "Winter break? The effects of overwintering, over time and space, on immune gene expression in wood frogs."
Dr. Grace Viziri will cover a pair of studies which both investigate how wood frogs (Lithobates sylvaticus), which are famous for their ability to tolerate whole-body freezing, regulate expression of immune genes during the winter. While cold winter conditions lead, intuitively, to reductions in metabolic rates of ectothermic hosts and their parasites, a slower metabolism doesn't necessarily translate to a decrease in parasite pressure, or in the need for immune functions. In this talk, I will describe trends in parasitism of wood frogs, and related gene expression of two important immune organs, skin and spleen, throughout the course of the 2019-2020 winter in Storrs, CT, US. I will also describe the results of an experimental investigation into whether wood frog immune gene expression is locally adapted to different winter environments across the species range.