Milind Mutnale
PhD: Fishing for parasite genomes: host-parasite co-evolution of an emerging salmonid disease
Location: University of Nottingham
I completed my BSc and MSc in Microbiology from India. My master thesis aimed at revealing haloarchaeal biodiversity present in invertebrates. After my MSc, I worked for 6 years as a project assistant on two different projects. First project was on an amphibian pandemic disease called “Chytridiomycosis” caused by fungal pathogen, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), where I looked at the Bd prevalence and its genetic diversity in frog populations across India. I also looked at the anti-Bd bacterial diversity present on the six selected frog species. My second project was on understanding the Himalayan cryoconite bacterial diversity. We collected many cryoconite samples from the western himalayan glacier and performed the 16s amplicon sequencing. We also looked at the selected bacterial species for their potential to oxidise high levels of manganese metal.
Here at the University of Nottingham, my PhD will be focused on understanding the diversity and distribution of fish parasite Tetracapsuloides bryosalmonae in salmonidae fish groups. T. bryosalmonae causes Proliferative Kidney Disease (PKD) in salmonidae fish groups and has been a main reason for the huge economic loss to farmers and industries. During my PhD, I will be collecting kidney tissue samples of Salmonidae fish groups from areas of Europe and North America and will be genotyping the parasite using Mobiseq technique. I will be constructing phylogenetic trees using the DNA sequence obtained to understand the parasite diversity and its lineage.