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Genetic Diversity of Saprolegnia
In my senior year of undergrad, I earned an Honors College scholarship to conduct an internationally collaborative research project between the Fish Pathobiology and Immunology Lab (FPIL) at Michigan State University and the Fish Health and Parasitology Research Team at the HUN-REN Veterinary Medical Research Institute, in Budapest, Hungary.
In this independent project, I cultured the common fish pathogen, Saprolegnia, from water and fish mucus samples to understand it's genetic diversity throughout the Great Lakes region, with a special focus on S. australis. My mentors were Dr. Bartolomeo Gorgoglione and Dr. Edit Eszterbauer
This research resulted in a winning research poster at Michigan State's annual undergrad research and arts forum!
Methods
Presentations
Primary Goal: Understand what species and strains of Saprolegnia occur in the Great Lakes region
Ahmad Ali S, Ezsterbaur E, Vamos R, Fusianto CK, Gorgoglione B. Discovering Saprolegnia spp. Diversity in The Great Lakes Region. Winning poster presentation at: Michigan State University Undergraduate Research and Arts Forum; 2026 April 17th; East Lansing, MI. Abstract published in 2026 Program Book.
Ahmad Ali S, Ezsterbaur E, Vamos R, Fusianto CK, Gorgoglione B. (2026) Discovering Saprolegnia spp. Diversity in The Great Lakes Region. [Manuscript in writing]
Saprolegnia is a widespread protist called an oomycete, that grows like a fungus (hence often being called a water mold), that can invade a fish host under stressed conditions and proliferate across the skin and gills as a white, cottony fungus. Many species of Saprolegnia occur across the globe, each with adaptations to specific hosts and conditions, and if not treated, it can become fatal.
Brown trout (Salmo trutta) infected by Saprolegnia parasitica, showing severe skin lesions (Photo: Reiner Kühnis and Michael Kugler, 2015) (Dahlin P., 2017).
Life cycle of Saprolegnia (Yang S., et al 2018)
1. Collection of samples
2. Culture and Isolation
3. DNA extraction, PCR, and Sequencing
Once DNa is extracted, we run PCR to amply DNA from the ITS (Internal Transcribed Spacer) region, using primers developed from White et al. 1990, and sequence bands around 700bps, which is expected of Saprolegnia.
Each primary culture is left at room temp (25 degrees celcius) for 3-5 days, then subcultured to isolate only the white, cottony growth.
Two kinds of samples are taken: water samples in 1 liter water bottles to be filtered through thruogh filter paper before plated, then fish mucus samples to be swabbed directly onto the culture plate
Primary Results (*To be updated with latest samples)
Out of 37 isolates from 7 total sampled locations , all were identified as S. australis. All succesful isolates came from 2 primary locations (Platte River, MI, and Bodine, IN). Among those 2 locations, 2 distince strains of S. australis were identified.
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