I have just returned to Glasgow after an epic month of travelling....you may have read my reflections on ISBA in my last lab blog, but soon after returning from ISBA in Korea, I flew off with my PhD student Sarah (Twitter @SarahBrozio) to Trinidad in the Caribbean to carry out fieldwork....joining up with the University of Glasgow Trinidad Expedition, an annual student led expedition that lets 10 or so undergraduates experience life and science in Trinidad. This years trip was shorter than normal for Sarah and I due to other commitments, but we packed a lot in to it in 12 days. My laboratory works primarily on Streptomyces bacteria, but one of the more wacky projects in my lab is studying the biochemical and biophysical properties of the proteins that make up the foam nests of Leptodactylid frogs- primarily the Tungara frog (Engystomops pustulosus) - Sarah is in her final year and we are generating some very interesting data and it looks like these foam proteins may be suitable as a drug delivery system for anti-cancer drugs and also antibiotics. Our fieldwork consists of driving around the island, listening for these little brown frogs and then collecting amplexing pairs or their nests and taking them back to the lab. The amplexing (mating) pairs can be placed in a centimetre or so of water and then put somewhere dark and quiet to allow frog love to take its course. The wild collected or captive laid nests can then be processed, by painstakingly removing all of the eggs from the foam. This stops egg proteins contaminating those of the foam. No frogs or eggs are harmed in this process as the following day, all frogs are released and all the eggs are hatched in captivity and then the tadpoles are released back in to the water body in which they were laid. We can then take all of these protein samples back to our lab in Strathclyde for analysis. All of this work is done under collecting licences and export permits kindly issued by Mr McFarlane of the Game and Wildlife Division of the Trinidad and Tobago Government. The last couple of years we have also engaged in some little side projects - one using eDNA to monitor the critically endangered Golden tree frog (paper here) and one to use Oxford Nanopore MinIons to undertake metagenomic studies of the whole bromeliad phytotelmata community - from amphibians through to bacteria and fungi. The work we undertake often uses the amazing William Beebe Tropical Research Centre at Simla in the Arima Valley as our accommodation. This is a truly remarkable place run by the thoroughly lovely Ronnie Hernandez on behalf of the Asa Wright nature Centre. Beebe is seen as the godfather of Tropical ecology and was somewhat of a celebrity in his time (he is most famous for inventing the Bathosphere submarine). Simla was built for him and he lived and worked there for many years. Much of the foundations of Tropical ecology were worked out there and much of the early work on echolocation in bats too. It is a remarkable place, a little run down but it is fantastic to go to sleep, under your mosquito net to the sounds of the jungle and then wake to a totally different set of sounds. Simla allows you to immerse yourself in to work and thinking about science while surrounded by hummingbirds, frogs and snakes (some are venomous so one has to be careful at night). I find it inspirational to be there - working where Beebe lived and worked and where he was visited and carried out work along side other great names in Biology - such as Ernst Mayr (Evolutionary biologist and personal hero), E. O Wilson (Entomologist), Sir Peter Scott (of WWT fame) and Nobel laureate Konrad Lorenz to name but a few. It is also a great place to meet other biologists, and the last couple of years we have shared Simla with Guppy researcher Jonathas Peirera from Andrew Hendry's group in McGill University, Canada who is doing really interesting work on the microevolution of Guppy fish. Simla is really inspirational and it is a great place to think and write, I managed to get lots of work done on some papers and a grant while I was there. This was my 6th field season in Trinidad and I have made a lot of friends on the island, so while we work there, we can catch up and hang out (lime as the Trinis would say) with them, take in the culture of the island, eat the amazing Trinidad food such as Doubles, dhalpuri roti and buss up shut. We now have a lot of data analysis to do and a lot of work to complete but I think it has been a successful trip (apart from getting a car towed and having to get it back from the wreckers yard and nearly losing a car off a mountain road- complete with my PhD student!). But for now it is back to the day job! I must thank the Glasgow University Expedition team for being so welcoming and allowing us to piggyback on their logistics, the Wildlife Division of the government, Mike Rutherford and Luke Rostant from University of the West Indies for rescuing us off El Tucuche with a 4x4 when we nearly lost the car! The guys from Oxford Nanopore for being great at accommodating our needs for flow cells and support. I can wait to go back next year for more jungle adventures! A foam nest of the Tungara frog found in a temporary pool on a building site in Arena forest, Trinidad A male Tungara frog getting ready to call for females Some of the Glasgow expedition team during a hike at Macqueripe (left to right) Adam, Me, Kirsty, Claire and Sarah Me with a little Anolis lizard (Anolis planiceps) found in the forest while frog hunting
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Prof. Paul A HoskissonNews from the Hoskisson Lab Archives
June 2017
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