{
  "abstract": "Emerging infectious diseases affect wildlife populations around the world, making effective conservation strategies essential to the long-term persistence of threatened species. Understanding the drivers of protective host responses to pathogens can help guide conservation efforts. Species that vary intraspecifically in their susceptibility to pathogens are often best for identifying significant drivers, as this reduces potentially confounding effects of highly divergent genetic and adaptive backgrounds. Boreal toads (Anaxyrus boreas boreas) exhibit such intraspecific variation in disease susceptibility. This species ranges across western North America and declines due to the fungal pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) have varied in severity across populations. Previous experimental work shows that some populations of boreal toads are better able to tolerate Bd than others, though the mechanisms are currently unclear. We sequenced the immune locus MHC IIβ exon 2 across tolerant and susceptible populations of boreal toads to determine if host genetics is correlated with Bd susceptibility in this system. We found that tolerant populations differ from susceptible populations at this locus. Specifically, tolerant populations had several distinct MHC alleles, higher observed heterozygosity, and a higher proportion of alleles belonging to one of two functional supertypes. Using these data, we predicted the Bd response of additional boreal toad populations with unknown susceptibility. Boreal toad conservation efforts will benefit from the ability to identify at-risk populations and individuals with genetic signatures of Bd tolerance for use in captive breeding and reintroduction efforts.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "Department of Integrative Biology The University of Texas at Austin Austin Texas USA.",
    "School of Biological Sciences The University of Oklahoma Norman Oklahoma USA.",
    "San Diego Natural History Museum San Diego California USA.",
    "U.S. Geological Survey Fort Collins Colorado USA.",
    "Department of Fish, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology Colorado State University Fort Collins Colorado USA.",
    "Graduate Degree Program in Ecology Colorado State University Fort Collins Colorado USA.",
    "Department of Biology Colorado State University Fort Collins Colorado USA."
  ],
  "article_type": "research article",
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 7,
  "authors": [
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Rebecca A Clemons",
      "orcid": "0009-0007-9320-5898"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        1
      ],
      "name": "Anat M Belasen",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-1306-3436"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        2
      ],
      "name": "Bennett M Hardy",
      "orcid": "0000-0003-4128-0734"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        3
      ],
      "name": "Erin Muths",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-5498-3132"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        4,
        5
      ],
      "name": "Larissa L Bailey",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-5959-2018"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        5,
        6
      ],
      "name": "W Chris Funk",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-6466-3618"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Kelly R Zamudio",
      "orcid": "0000-0001-5107-6206"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/3gyq9afqsncaq.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.1111/eva.70348",
  "fulltext_url": "https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13717072/?tool=EBI",
  "id": "3gyq9afqsncaq",
  "issns": [
    "1752-4571"
  ],
  "landing_url": "https://europepmc.org/article/PMC/PMC13717072",
  "language": "eng",
  "licence": "CC-BY",
  "licence_label": "CC BY",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "heading",
      "Original Article"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "2306|Amphibian and Reptile Biology"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7224673228",
  "pdf_url": "https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13717072/pdf/?tool=EBI",
  "pmcid": "PMC13717072",
  "pmid": "42959482",
  "published": "2026-10-28",
  "publisher": "Wiley",
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/3gyq9afqsncaq.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-31T00:20:37Z",
      "native_id": "PMC:PMC13717072",
      "source": "europepmc",
      "url": "https://europepmc.org/article/PMC/PMC13717072"
    },
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-11-01T00:20:50Z",
      "native_id": "MED:42959482",
      "source": "europepmc",
      "url": "https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42959482"
    },
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-11-02T12:21:27Z",
      "native_id": "PMC13717072",
      "source": "pmc",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.1111/eva.70348"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "earth",
      "origin": "openalex:2306|Amphibian and Reptile Biology",
      "subfield": "climate"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Variation in Disease Susceptibility Is Associated With Immunogenetics in a Threatened Amphibian",
  "title_text": "Variation in Disease Susceptibility Is Associated With Immunogenetics in a Threatened Amphibian",
  "type": "peer-reviewed",
  "updated_at": "2026-11-02T12:21:27Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/3gyq9afqsncaq",
  "venue": "Evolutionary applications",
  "versions": []
}