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Frog genome opens window to past

Sat, 05/01/2010 - 12:25 by Pankaj Damin

Walnut Creek, Calif. -- The newly completed genome sequence of the African clawed frog could provide clues to some of the world's most ancient creatures, a California scientist said.

The genome of the frog, Xenopus tropicalis, fills a major gap among such vertebrates sequenced so far, said Uffe Hellsten, a researcher with Joint Genome Institute, Walnut Creek, Calif.

"When you look at segments of the Xenopus genome, you literally are looking at structures that are 360 million years old and were part of the genome of the last common ancestor of all birds, frogs, dinosaurs and mammals that ever roamed the earth," Hellsten said in a release from the Institute Thursday.

Frog legs spreading pathogen

Sat, 11/21/2009 - 07:33 by harsheeb

Washington -- A worldwide trade in frog legs may be spreading pathogens deadly to amphibians, scientists in Washington said.

Amphibians are declining rapidly worldwide, with more than one-third of the estimated 6,000 amphibian species threatened with extinction, scientists at the Smithsonian Institution said in a release.

Many amphibians are vulnerable to Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, also known as amphibian chytrid. The pathogen could spread unchecked in the $40-million-per-year culinary trade of frog legs, most of which are consumed in France, Belgium and the United States, Smithsonian biologist Brian Gratwicke said.

Surgery saves frog injured by lawnmower

Wed, 05/13/2009 - 07:24 by harsheeb

Batchelor-- An Australian veterinarian said a green tree frog that underwent surgery for injuries caused by a lawnmower is recovering nicely.

Veterinarian Stephen Cutter of the Ark Animal Hospital in the Northern Territory said the frog underwent emergency surgery to reattach its skin to its back after the amphibian was run over by a lawn mower, The (Brisbane) Courier-Mail reported Tuesday.

Cutter said the frog would not have survived for long without the surgery.
"It was a pretty horrific injury," he said. "It basically took the top layer of the skin off and did some internal injuries."

"But from day one she fought to live. It's very lucky to be alive," Cutter said.