Newswise: Scientists Bring New Species of Turtle Out of Its Shell

Newswise — When scientists announce the discovery of a new animal species, we often imagine exotic, difficult to reach locations—the untouched shore of a distant island, the forests of the rain-drenched Amazon or the darkest depths of the Arctic Ocean.

But the recent announcement of a new species of turtle in the southeastern United States proves that even in a country considered to be well-explored, perhaps more awaits discovery.

In June, Jeff Lovich, NAU adjunct faculty member in biology, and Josh Ennen, NAU affiliate, published the discovery of a new species of turtle in Chelonian Conservation and Biology International Journal of Turtle and Tortoise Research.

Found in the Pearl River, which flows through Mississippi and Louisiana before it meets the Gulf of Mexico, the newly named Pearl Map Turtle, or Graptemys pearlensis, had been mistaken for a turtle native to the neighboring Pascagoula River. Ennen found it odd that the Pascagoula Map Turtle was found in both rivers and wanted to further investigate.

Ennen was completing his dissertation at University of Southern Mississippi when he decided to take a closer look at the inhabitants of the two rivers. His research led him to Lovich, who had found, described and named the last turtle species in the same region in 1992.

“I was familiar with Jeff’s work when questions started coming up,” Ennen said. “Based on the genetics, morphology and geographic isolation, I was considering classifying the turtles as distinct population segments when I decided to contact Jeff.”

Lovich, a research ecologist with U.S. Geological Survey’s Colorado Plateau Station at NAU, shared his findings and insight as the scientists built their case for classification of the new turtle species. His access to geologic and geographic data with the USGS assisted in their developing theory that the turtles had evolved into separate species.

“You’d expect to see similar aquatic species in these rivers due to their proximity,” Lovich said. “However, with sea level changes associated with glacial and interglacial periods in the past, animals in these rivers were periodically separated for tens of thousands to millions of years.”

Ennen and Lovich observed pattern variations between turtles in two rivers, and examining their DNA verified that the turtle endemic to each river was a different species.

The announcement of the Pearl Map Turtle, “Genetic and morphological variation between populations of the Pascagoula Map Turtle (Graptemys gibbonsi) in the Pearl and Pascagoula Rivers with description of a new species,” brings the number of native turtle species in the United States to 57, including six in Arizona, with approximately 320 species documented worldwide.

http://www.newswise.com/articles/nau-scientists-bring-new-species-of-turtle-out-of-its-shell

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UGA researchers unlocking the secrets of cross-species rabies transmission

 Like most infectious diseases, rabies can attack several species. However, which species are going to be infected and why turns out to be a difficult problem that represents a major gap in our knowledge of how diseases emerge. A paper just published in the journal Science by a team of researchers led by Daniel G. Streicker, a Ph.D. student in the University of Georgia Odum School of Ecology, has begun to close that knowledge gap.

The paper, co-authored by researchers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the University of Tennessee-Knoxville and Western Michigan University, provides among the first estimates for any infectious disease of how often a disease can be transmitted across species in complex, multi-host communities and the likelihood of disease establishment in a new host species.

“Rabies happens to be an ideal system to answer these questions,” said Streicker. “Rabies occurs across the country, affects many different host species and is known to mutate frequently.” Although cases of rabies in humans are rare in the U.S., bats are the most common source of these infections, according to the CDC.

To determine the rate at which rabies infects multiple species, Streicker and his colleagues used an enormous dataset, unprecedented in its scope, containing hundreds of rabies viruses from 23 North American bat species. They used gene sequencing and tools from population genetics to quantify how many cross-species transmission (CST) events were expected to occur between each pair of species from any infected individual. Their analysis showed that, depending upon the species involved, a single infected bat may infect between 0 and 2 members of a different species; and that, on average, the probability of cross-species transmission occurs only once for every 73 transmissions within the same species.

“What’s really important about this is that molecular sequence data, an increasingly cheap and available resource, can be used to quantify CST,” said Streicker.

Associate professor Sonia Altizer, Streicker’s advisor in the Odum School, agreed. “This is a breakthrough,” said Altizer. “The team defined, for the first time, a framework for quantifying the rates of CST across a network of host species that could be applied to other wildlife pathogens, and they developed novel methods to do it.”

The researchers also looked at what factors allow diseases to move across species, such as foraging behavior, geographic range and genetics.

“There’s a popular idea that because of their potential for rapid evolution, the emergence of these types of viruses is limited more by ecological constraints than by genetic similarity between donor and recipient hosts,” explained Streicker. “We wanted to see if that was the case.”

They found, instead, that rabies viruses are much more likely to jump between closely related bat species than between ones that diverged in the distant past. Overlapping geographic range was also associated with CST, but to a lesser extent.

“CST and viral establishment do not occur at random, but instead are highly constrained by host-associated barriers,” Streicker said. “Contrary to popular belief, rapid evolution of the virus isn’t enough to overcome the genetic differences between hosts.”

Streicker believes that what he and his colleagues have learned about bat rabies will be influential in understanding the ecology, evolution and emergence of many wildlife viruses of public health and conservation importance. “The basic knowledge we’ve gained will be key to developing new intervention strategies for diseases that can jump from wildlife to humans,” he said.

Streicker is continuing his work with rabies and bats, with funding for a three-year study from the National Science Foundation. He and Altizer, in collaboration with investigators at the CDC, University of Michigan and the Peruvian Ministries of Health and Agriculture, will explore how human activities affect the transmission of the rabies virus in vampire bats in Peru and how those changes might feed back into altering the risk of rabies infection for humans, domesticated animals and wildlife.

“This kind of synthetic, interdisciplinary work is precisely what we aim for in the Odum School,” said John Gittleman, Odum School dean. “The success of this research hinges on bringing together the fields of genetics, evolution and disease in a large-scale ecological context. Big problems in ecology will be solved in this way.”



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Brown Pelican's 40-Year Recovery Victory for Supporters of Environmental Protections

/PRNewswire/ -- National conservation groups focusing on the restoration of coastal Louisiana are hailing today's announcement by federal officials that the state bird of Louisiana, the Brown Pelican, is being removed from the Endangered Species List. Audubon, the Environmental Defense Fund and the National Wildlife Federation view the recovering pelican as powerful proof that a healthy coast and strong environmental protections can benefit people and nature alike.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says the species has sufficiently recovered from the impact of DDT contamination compounded by continuing habitat loss to be taken off the list in areas where it is not already delisted. Populations along the Atlantic Coast, in Florida and Alabama were delisted in 1985.

"The delisting of this iconic Gulf of Mexico species shows that cooperation produces results," said Mary E. Kelly, senior counsel of the Environmental Defense Fund's Center for Rivers and Deltas. "Now, we need to ensure that same spirit of cooperation and results extends to restoration of coastal Louisiana's wetlands, which, among many other benefits, provide habitat and food for this beautiful bird."

"This is an Endangered Species Act victory that demonstrates the great success we can achieve when we work together," echoes NWF's John Kostyack. "Maintaining that success will require confronting climate change and its relationship to coastal restoration and the species that depend on these important ecosystems."

According to Audubon's annual Christmas Bird Count, Brown Pelican population trends have risen in Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas and California for the past 40-50 years. Hurricane Katrina took a toll on the Gulf Coast populations that has not been thoroughly erased, but the prospects remain good, provided coastal recovery stays on track.

"The future of the Brown Pelican depends on the same strategies that will benefit coastal residents," said Audubon's Louisiana Bird Conservation Director Melanie Driscoll. "Pelicans and people need a strong, well-funded coastal restoration plan that will speed the recovery of coastal marshes and the barrier islands that are our first defense from hurricanes and their primary source of food and shelter."

Continued monitoring of Brown Pelicans is essential to detect any unexpected future population declines. Conservationists also caution that proper site selection, operational guidelines and vigilance will be needed to ensure that proposed wind power projects don't threaten recovery in Texas and other areas.

Environmental Defense Fund, a leading national nonprofit organization, represents more than 700,000 members. Since 1967, Environmental Defense Fund has linked science, economics, law and innovative private-sector partnerships to create breakthrough solutions to the most serious environmental problems. For more information, visit www.edf.org.

The National Wildlife Federation is America's largest conservation organization inspiring Americans to protect wildlife for our children's future.

Audubon -- Now in its second century, Audubon connects people with birds, nature and the environment that supports us all. Our national network of community-based nature centers, chapters, scientific, education, and advocacy programs engages millions of people from all walks of life in conservation action to protect and restore the natural world.

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Web Site Offers First Complete Look at Georgia's Freshwater Fishes

This is no fish tale: A new Georgia Museum of Natural History Web site offers the most complete look at Georgia fishes, what they are and where they’re found.

“There has never been anything this comprehensive,” said Brett Albanese, a senior aquatic zoologist with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.

Fishes of Georgia is the work of Albanese, Museum of Natural History Director Bud Freeman and Carrie Straight, a research professional with the University of Georgia Odum School of Ecology. The Web site at http://fishesofgeorgia.uga.edu/ went online in March. Behind the lists, photographs and distribution maps are thousands of hours spent studying records, sampling streams and inspecting fish preserved in jars.

Results include a Fishes of Georgia Atlas database that features more than 159,000 fish records from 19,028 collections, and an easy-to-use Web site that documents the state’s deep lineup of freshwater fish. A 1997 publication reported 219 native freshwater fishes for Georgia. Through the atlas project, that total now stands at 265, placing Georgia among the top three U.S. states for freshwater fish diversity.

Environmental consultants, city planners, conservationists and elementary school teachers are all expected to use the site. Species are listed by scientific and common names. Maps show where each fish lives by basin. (Drainage systems often have different fishes.) A tab allows viewers to submit new records.

There are surprises. Twenty-one species listed have not been formally described – or recognized as new species – although many such as the sicklefin redhorse are well known to ichthyologists like Freeman and Albanese. These fish illustrate what is called cryptic, or hidden, diversity.

Factors contributing to a fish species being undiscovered vary, Freeman said. “They may be in hard to sample places. They may look exactly the same, at first glance. They may be different only genetically.”

Anglers who log in will find more bass than expected. The site lists Bartram’s bass, an undescribed species in the Savannah River basin, and splits redeye bass into a species in the Chattahoochee and Flint River basins and another in the Ocmulgee, Oconee and Ogeechee basins, based on research Freeman spearheaded.

The number of state or federally protected fish – 57 – will raise eyebrows. And at least six species are no longer found in Georgia. Conserving the remaining fishes will require watershed-level measures such as protecting streamside forests, preserving natural areas, and managing better the run-off from urban and rural land uses.

The hope is that Fishes of Georgia informs and educates. Straight modeled the site after the museum’s Georgia Wildlife Web, a popular guide to wildlife. She also avoided flashy features that bank on faster Internet connections. “We tried to accommodate as broad a spectrum of users as we could,” Straight said.

She is still adding maps and photographs. Plans include new search functions. Scientists’ comments also will likely change the information, which includes common coastal fishes and 23 non-native species.

The project was funded by the museum, which is part of the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences at UGA, Georgia DNR’s Nongame Conservation Section and a State Wildlife Grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The Fishes of Georgia Atlas was a priority in Georgia’s Wildlife Action Plan, a comprehensive strategy that guides DNR efforts to conserve biological diversity.

The atlas is a significant component of a larger effort to publish a comprehensive book on the state’s fish fauna. Next steps include the development of taxonomic keys and species accounts, a challenge given the number of species involved. Keeping the atlas up-to-date as new information becomes available is also a high priority for the authors.

Each expects the database and Web site to spur more research and understanding of Georgia fishes.



FISHES OF GEORGIA by the numbers

** Web site features 337 species.

** 284 species occur primarily in freshwater or enter freshwater for feeding or breeding.

** 265 of the freshwater species are considered native to Georgia.

** 23 species are introduced or non-native to the state.

** At least six species are extirpated or extinct from Georgia waters.

** 57 are state protected; eight of these are also protected under the U.S. Endangered Species Act.

** 21 have not been formally described by scientists, including some long-recognized species like the sicklefin redhorse and others like a separate species of redeye bass more recently discovered.

** Online: http://fishesofgeorgia.uga.edu/

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Animal Families With The Most Diversity Also Have Widest Range Of Size

Somewhere out there in the ocean, SpongeBob SquarePants has a teeny-tiny cousin and a humongous uncle.

That's just what one would expect from a new analysis of body sizes across all orders of animal life that was conducted by researchers at the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent), in Durham, N.C. and the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Researchers Craig McClain and Alison Boyer created a giant database on body sizes across all orders of animal life and found that phyla -- families of animals grouped together by a similar body plan -- with the greatest diversity of species were also those with the largest range of body sizes.

The sponges, Poriferans, were found to have some of the greatest diversity of both body size and species, ranging from microscopic to the size of an automobile. Molluscs (snails, squid, clams, chitons), and Arthropods (crabs, insects, lobsters, copepods) also showed great diversity. So did our family, the Chordates, which ranges from a half-inch fish in the swamps of Borneo to the truly leviathan 100-ton Blue Whale, with all the fishes, birds and mammals in between.

On the one hand, it may seem obvious that diversity in size and diversity in species go together, acknowledges marine biologist McClain, assistant director of science at NESCent. But it also says something a little more subtle about how new species arise and adapt to all the available niches in the environment.

“This really comes down to understanding the diversity of life on Earth,” McClain said.

The group's findings appear online in Proceedings of the Royal Society B. The research was conducted in part at the Monterrey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, funded by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, and the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. NESCent is a National Science Foundation collaboration of Duke, UNC and N.C. State that is housed in buildings Duke leases.

The Blue Whale, incidentally, is the largest animal ever, but the Chordate group doesn't boast the smallest. That distinction belongs to animals with names like mud dragons, brush heads, jaw worms, stomach hair worms and water bears that are so small they live between individual grains of sediment in the ocean. But this smallest group's range doesn't reach up to the largest body size.

This is a pattern that repeated itself several times in the data, McClain said. There are apparently physical limits to the range of sizes that can work for some body plans. In worms, for example, it is impossible to slither along if the girth and weight become too large. (The largest worm, Riftia pachyptila, from deep-sea vents, doesn't move.)

Within the range of sizes that works for a given body plan, evolution creates new species and new sizes, McClain said. What this sweeping analysis hasn't solved is the riddle about how different body sizes emerge. One theory says that body sizes arise through random natural variation. A second says that size diversity is driven by the availability of unused niches in the environment.

The finding also points to areas where more species might be waiting to be discovered. For example, the little-studied priapulid worms (aka “penis worms”) have only 16 species on the books, but with a very large range in size. McClain's guess is that there may be more undiscovered species within that range of sizes. “There are groups that definitely don't have a lot of people studying them,” he said.

Knowing something about a body plan's size constraints also might allow for a ballpark estimate of its number of species, McClain said.

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Will Tiger Cubs be Zoo Atlanta Next Big Birth?

Just nine months after welcoming the arrival of three African lion cubs – the first of their kind born at 800 Cherokee Avenue in more than 10 years – Zoo Atlanta is hopeful that another popular feline species may soon end a second decade-long wait. Chelsea, a 5-year-old female
Sumatran tiger, may be expecting cubs.

While the Animal Management and Veterinary Teams have not yet been able to confirm a pregnancy, staff is hopeful that Chelsea, who arrived at the Zoo in 2006, could be on her way to first-time motherhood. The tigress was seen breeding with her mate, 8-year-old Kavi for the first time in early January (tiger gestation is around 103 days, with litter sizes ranging from one to five cubs).

The birth of Sumatran tiger cubs would be a triumph for a vanishing species. The most endangered of the world’s remaining tigers, Sumatrans are believed to number fewer than 400 in the wild. Poaching, habitat loss and habitat fragmentation caused by deforestation are the primary threats to the charismatic cats, which are found only on the Indonesian island of Sumatra.

As is the case with their wild counterparts, Chelsea and Kavi interact only at specific times. The species is solitary, with males and females associating briefly during short breeding intervals. The Zoo’s pair met in 2007, but Chelsea did not demonstrate any signs of receptivity to Kavi until January 2009.

Zoo Atlanta is home to two other Sumatran tigers, Jalal, 15, and Sekayu. At 21, Sekayu is the nation’s oldest living Sumatran tiger. The last tiger cub born at the Zoo was their offspring, Bahagia, a female born in November 2000.

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Project to Trap, Track Godwits Means Long Day at the Beach

Cannons firing, people running, adrenaline pumping: no, it is not war; it’s banding birds – marbled godwits, to be precise.

The marbled godwit is a large migratory shorebird that nests in the grasslands of the Plains states and central Canada, as well as in Alaska and, in small numbers, eastern Canada. Godwits winter on the West, Gulf and East coast, including in Georgia. The birds will stay here until late April or early May, with a few juveniles remaining throughout the summer.

The marbled godwit is in decline, at least in part due to habitat loss, and listed by the U.S. Shorebird Conservation Plan as a high-priority species. Understanding the connections between winter habitats, nesting areas and migration stops for the various populations is vital to managing habitat for the species. The connections are also the focus of a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service project encompassing North America.

On this chilly December morning, a group headed by Brad Winn, coastal nongame program manager for the Georgia Wildlife Resources Division, has spent most of the last several hours setting a trap to capture and satellite-track these cinnamon-colored birds with the upturned bills.

As part of the continent-wide project, small transmitters attached to the godwits will help biologists determine where the birds migrate and nest, what their movements are throughout winter, and other general location data. The marbled godwit is listed as a high-priority species in the State Wildlife Action Plan, a comprehensive strategy guiding Wildlife Resources and Georgia Department of Natural Resources efforts to conserve biological diversity.

The site is carefully chosen based on tide levels and bird sightings from the previous day. A trench is dug in the sand and the net laid. Two 4-by-6-inch blocks of wood with round metal pipes attached serve as cannons. They are filled with gunpowder and half buried in the sand after being attached to each side of the net with rebar. A wire attached to the fuses winds across the long stretch of beach to where the researchers are hiding … and waiting.

When it comes to catching birds, timing is everything.

After the trap is set, everyone sits back and waits. A variety of birds have begun to congregate in the target area, including American oystercatchers, long-billed curlews and, of course, marbled godwits. The hope is that as the tide comes in, the birds will move into the “net zone.”

Concentration and constant communication are crucial. Farther down the beach, Winn watches with a scope and radios. Chris Depkin, a wildlife biologist, is hiding in a different spot and holding the fuse.

“Not yet, just a little more,” says Winn, quietly urging the birds to move.

The window for capturing the birds is narrow. As the tide rises, they slowly move onto the sand bar and into the capture area. If the birds are not captured before the tide begins to recede, the chance will be lost, at least for today.

Sometimes they need a little help. Winn makes a call and two young men with a kayak soon come walking down the beach. Both have done this before and need little direction. Ben Morrison, a naturalist for Little St. Simons Island, pushes off and cautiously paddles towards the birds. The situation looks good, but anything can still go wrong.

If the birds become too wary, they will flush. If the kayak is too slow, the tide will come in and the birds will leave. Either outcome means everyone packs up and goes home for the day.

The kayak does its job. The birds scuttle almost imperceptibly to the right. Perfect.

What happens next seems like orchestrated chaos. Winn completes the countdown, the cannons are fired and then everyone is running toward the birds struggling in the net. Looks like a good catch.

Researchers work quickly to secure the trapped birds. Each is carefully removed and placed in plastic bins for carrying to the staging area where they will be measured, weighed, banded and examined. A few lucky birds will also receive the satellite transmitters.

When all have been sorted by species, the birds are secured under a large tarp, which shields them from the sun and helps them stay calm. Now the real work begins.

The team forms an assembly line of sorts to work faster. Winn and Depkin are in charge along with Scott Coleman, ecological manager from Little St. Simons Island. Starting with the godwits, they weigh each bird to determine if it is large enough to carry the 9.5-gram transmitter. They must weigh more than 300 grams to qualify. Two birds are selected.

The bird’s bills and a portion of their legs referred to as the tarsus are measured. Three feathers are plucked, two from the breast and one from the wing to be used for analysis. Tests that measure the ratio of stable isotopes can determine what the bird was feeding on when it grew the feather, giving researchers a more accurate picture of migration habits.

Wings are stretched to check for molting, which helps indicate the age of the bird, and then each leg receives both a metal band and a plastic band for identification. After a quick swab to test for avian influenza, volunteers photograph each bird and then finally it is released, its ordeal over.

The team works long into the evening, finishing as temperatures begin to drop into the 30s. The catch includes 11 marbled godwits and 44 American oystercatchers, a species listed as threatened in Georgia. Six of the oystercatchers and one godwit are re-captures, or birds previously banded. The re-captured oystercatchers include one from Virginia and one from North Carolina. The re-captured godwit had been banded in Georgia.

The Wildlife Resources Division has been banding marbled godwits and American oystercatchers since 2001. But researchers began the godwit transmitter project in Georgia last fall, thanks to a grant from The Environmental Resources Network, or TERN, the nonprofit advocacy group for Wildlife Resources’ Nongame Conservation Section.

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UGA Study may Give Hope that Ivory-Billed Woodpeckers Still Around

Until credible sightings popped up three years ago, the scientific world was in agreement that ivory-billed woodpeckers had gone the way of the dodo. A new study conducted by University of Georgia researchers reveals that the ivory-billed woodpecker could have persisted if as few as five mated pairs survived the extensive habitat loss during the early 1900’s. A new paper published in the online journal Avian Conservation and Ecology by researchers at the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources adds another angle to the ongoing debate about modern existence of the birds.

Crow-sized and native to America’s ancient southeastern bottomland forests, the ivory-billed woodpecker was thought to have gone extinct following indiscriminate logging in the 1940s until reports began surfacing in the flooded forests of eastern Arkansas in 2004. Crisp photographic or genetic evidence continues to evade eager seekers, however, and controversy has raged about whether there were even enough of the woodpeckers left to keep the species going through the latter part of the 20th century.

“It doesn’t prove that they do exist,” said Warnell Professor Michael Conroy. “It just shows that they could have persisted.”

Conroy is one of several scientists on the team who conducted a population viability analysis, which was funded by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Also on the team are Warnell post-doctoral students Brady Mattsson and Rua Mordecai, Warnell professors James Peterson and Robert Cooper, and Danish researcher Hans Christensen.

The ivory-billed woodpecker—nicknamed the “Lord God Bird” for its impressive physique and bold black and white plumage—has been the subject of intense debate among bird researchers. James Tanner, the only scientist to have studied this woodpecker intensively, estimated that only 24 breeding pairs remained in the 1930s. Although there have been credible sightings of the birds in Arkansas, Tennessee and the Florida panhandle, undisputed evidence of the woodpeckers has eluded ornithologists since the work of Tanner in the early 1900s. This lack of solid documentation has led many to question whether the ivory-billed woodpecker could still exist.

To find out, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ordered a multi-state, intensive search effort for the elusive bird and a population viability analysis, which, among other things, assesses the population size and other factors required for the population to persist over specified time frames.

Mattsson, a former doctoral student working with Cooper, took the lead on the modeling project by constructing the population model and conducting the analysis. Based on information gleaned from the literature and unpublished sources on closely-related species of woodpeckers, Mattsson considered plausible ranges of initial population size, reproduction rates and adult survival rates to play games of “what if” with simulated woodpecker populations. What he found was that as few as five breeding pairs of these large woodpeckers could have ensured the persistence of ivory-billed woodpeckers in wooded swamps of the southeastern U.S. to this day.

He said his model is not meant to prove their existence, but “it gives people involved with the research team hope that they’re still out there,” and shows that sufficient levels of reproduction and survival are as important, if not more important, than large numbers of individuals for ensuring persistence of the species.

Cooper said that initially it was thought that the ivory-billed woodpeckers had a very small chance of persisting through modern times, but he believes Mattsson’s analysis shows that the probability is larger than originally suspected.

Conroy is optimistic about implications from their findings for similar species thought to have blinked out of existence.

“I think it gives us hope that remnants of [species] out there that we thought were extinct are still out there,” he said.

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FDA Issues Final Guidance on Regulating Genetically Engineered Animals

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today issued a final guidance for industry on the regulation of genetically engineered (GE) animals under the new animal drug provisions of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA). The guidance, titled "The Regulation of Genetically Engineered Animals Containing Heritable rDNA Constructs," clarifies the FDA's statutory and regulatory authority, and provides recommendations to producers of GE animals to help them meet their obligations and responsibilities under the law.

Genetic engineering generally refers to the use of recombinant DNA (rDNA) techniques to introduce new characteristics or traits into an organism. When scientists splice together pieces of DNA and introduce a spliced DNA segment into an organism to give the organism new properties, it is called rDNA technology. The spliced piece of DNA is called the rDNA construct. A GE animal is one that contains an rDNA construct intended to give the animal new characteristics or traits.

“Genetic engineering is a cutting edge technology that holds substantial promise for improving the health and well being of people as well as animals. In this document, the agency has articulated a scientifically robust interpretation of statutory requirements," said Randall Lutter, Ph.D., deputy commissioner for policy. “This guidance will help the FDA efficiently review applications for products from GE animals to ensure their safety and efficacy."

The FDA released the draft guidance in September 2008 with a 60-day public comment period, and received about 28,000 comments. The agency has summarized and responded to these comments on the Web site listed below.

The FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM) has been working with developers of GE animals on both early stage and more mature applications.

“At this time, it is our intent to hold public scientific advisory committee meetings prior to making decisions on GE animal-related applications" said Bernadette Dunham, D.V.M., Ph.D., director of CVM.

The FFDCA defines “articles (other than food) intended to affect the structure or any function of the body of man or other animals" as drugs. An rDNA construct that is in a GE animal and is intended to affect the animal's structure or function meets the definition of an animal drug, whether the animal is intended for food, or used to produce another substance. Developers of these animals must demonstrate that the construct and any new products expressed from the inserted construct are safe for the health of the GE animal and, if they are food animals, for food consumption.

The guidance also describes the manufacturer's responsibility in meeting the requirements for environmental review under the National Environmental Policy Act.

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New Fish Species Discovered in GA River by UGA

While surveying fishes in Georgia's Flint River, Byron and Mary Freeman noticed that a certain darter fish had a striking orange color in its fins--much different than the Blackbanded darter that is prominent in the southwest Georgia River. The University of Georgia researchers had indeed come across a new species: the Halloween darter or Percina crypta.

"The Halloween darter is a great example of 'cryptic biodiversity' -- species that have gone unrecognized because they look a lot like other species that are known," explained Mary, an ecologist with the U.S. Geological Survey and the UGA Odum School of Ecology. "Ichthyologists have documented many new fish species in the southeastern U.S., showing that despite nearly 100 years of scientific study of fishes in this region, there are still surprises."

The newly discovered Halloween darter is less than five inches long and upon analysis, was found to have a host of differences from the Blackbanded darter. The fish is common to only a few areas of the Chattahoochee and Flint River systems because it requires habitats with swift water currents over rocky areas--shoals. Findings were reported in a recent issue of prominent zoological journal Zootaxa.

According to Mary, there are far fewer shoals today because of the rise of dams on rivers and streams, as well as the removal of rock shoals to improve rivers for navigation. The discovery of the Halloween darter has definite implications for conservation strategies.

"Keeping track of the status of the Halloween darter, along with other species that require shoal habitats in the Chattahoochee and Flint Rivers, will provide information on how shoals as ecological systems are responding to changes in land use, water management and climate," said Mary.

In addition to the Freemans, the research team included Noel Burkhead of the U.S. Geological Survey and Carrie Straight, a Ph.D. student at the UGA Odum School of Ecology.

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Diversity of Plant-Eating Fish May be Key to Coral Reef Recovery

For endangered coral reefs, not all plant-eating fish are created equal.

A report scheduled to be published this week in the early edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests that maintaining the proper balance of herbivorous fishes may be critical to restoring coral reefs, which are declining dramatically worldwide. The conclusion results from a long-term study that found significant recovery in sections of coral reefs on which fish of two complementary species were caged.

Coral reefs depend on fish to eat the seaweeds with which the corals compete, and without such cleaning, the reefs decline as corals are replaced by seaweeds. Different fish consume different seaweeds because of the differing chemical and physical properties of the plants.

“Of the many different fish that are part of coral ecosystems, there may be a small number of species that are really critical for keeping big seaweeds from over-growing and killing corals,” explained Mark Hay, the Harry and Linda Teasley Professor of Biology at the Georgia Institute of Technology. “Our study shows that in addition to having enough herbivores, coral ecosystems also need the right mix of species to overcome the different defensive tactics of the seaweeds.”

By knowing which fish are most critical to maintaining coral health, resource managers could focus on protecting and enhancing the highest-impact species. In situations where local peoples depend on fishing, they might better sustain the reefs on which they depend by harvesting only less critical species.

“This could offer one more approach to resource managers,” Hay added. “If ecosystems were managed for critical mixes of herbivorous species, we might see more rapid recovery of the reefs.”

Believed to be the first study to demonstrate the importance of herbivore diversity in enhancing the growth of coral reefs, the research was conducted at the National Undersea Research Center in Key Largo, Florida. It was supported by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Science Foundation and the Teasley Endowment at Georgia Tech.

Working 60 feet below the surface near the underwater laboratory Aquarius, Hay and co-author Deron E. Burkpile – who is now at Florida International University in North Miami – constructed 32 cages on a coral reef. Each cage was about two meters square and one meter tall and was sealed so that larger fish could neither enter nor leave.

The number and type of fish placed into each four-square-meter cage varied. Some cages had two fish that were able to eat hard, calcified plants; some had two fish able to eat soft, but chemically-defended plants; some had one of both types, and some had no fish at all. The cages were observed for a period of ten months starting in November 2003, and the change in coral cover and seaweed growth was measured.

“For the cages in which we mixed the two species of herbivores, the fish were able to remove much more of the upright seaweeds, and the corals in those areas increased in cover by more than 20 percent during ten months,” Hay said. “That is a dramatic rate of increase for a Caribbean reef.”

Though the percentage growth was impressive, the actual growth in size of each coral was small, Hay noted. Prior to the experiment, the coral reef areas studied had just four to five percent coverage of live coral. After ten months, the corals caged with the two species showed six to seven percent coverage. Corals caged with just one type of fish or no fish lost as much as 30 percent of their cover during the time period.

Hay and Burkepile attempted to repeat their experiment with a different species of fish, but the underwater cages were wiped away by Hurricane Dennis in July 2005 after only seven months of study.

The researchers studied the effects of the redband parrotfish (Sparisoma aurofrenatum) and the ocean surgeonfish (Acanthurus bahianus) in the first experiment, and the redband parrotfish and princess parrotfish (Scarus taeniopterus) in the second. The two fish per cage was at the “high end” of fish density found on present-day Caribbean reefs, but historic densities might have been much higher before extensive fishing of the Caribbean, Hay said.

Just two decades ago, coral coverage in the Caribbean was commonly 40 to 60 percent. Scientists blame many factors – disease, overfishing, pollution, excessive nutrients and global climate change – for the rapid decline, which has also been seen to differing degrees among coral reefs worldwide.

“Some people would argue that coral reefs really don’t exist as functional ecosystems in the Caribbean anymore,” Hay said. “The best reefs we have today are poor cousins to what was only average 20 years ago.”

For the future, Hay would like to expand the experiments to study the effects of additional species, and repeat the studies in different areas, such as the Fiji Islands, where residents are concerned about sustainability of the coral reefs. Though dependent on local fish for their protein, he said the Fiji Islanders may be able to change their fishing habits if researchers can determine which fish must be protected to help the reefs.

“The data we are seeing in Fiji suggests that diversity may be even more important there than it was in the Caribbean,” he said. “There are a lot of different species doing a lot of very different things. These consumers are very important, and in areas where they are over-fished, the reefs are crashing.”

The study provides more proof of how important biodiversity can be to maintaining healthy ecosystems.

“Species diversity is critically important, but we are losing critical components of the Earth’s ecosystem at an alarming rate,” Hay said. “There has been little work on the role of diversity among consumers and the effect that has on communities. This study will help add to our knowledge in this critical area.”

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