Meet Kimberly Schoenberger, recipient of FIF’s 2024 Island Fox Research Grant and a PhD candidate at the University of Southern California (USC) Dornsife College of Marine and Environmental Biology.
Schoenberger is initiating the first investigation of island fox genetics using transcriptomics. This leading-edge research uses RNA (the copier of DNA) to look at a species’ genetic material and evaluate it for protein production and vital cell functions. Transcriptomics provides insight into how genes turn on or off in cells and how this may influence health or disease.
The project will analyze three important aspects of island fox genetic expression: 1) what are the genetic differences between the six island fox subspecies; 2) how do different environmental conditions and demographics impact gene expression; and 3) will identify genes that are being influenced by disease or parasite exposure.
(As Catalina Island foxes were recovering from a severe population low, they experienced high levels of cancer due to an extreme immune system response to ear mites. This condition does not occur on other islands. Dr. A. DeCandia’s microbiome investigation identified a connection with specific bacteria (elaborated on by Jasmine Lu paper). Husbandry efforts currently control the ear mites, but the epigenetic link between the inflammation and eventual cancer remains unknown.)
Disease and parasites pose some of the greatest current threats to island fox survival. This project could provide valuable insight into which island fox subspecies have the greatest genetic vulnerabilities and help inform conservation measures.
Another important element of Schoenberger’s project is that it integrates directly into the current protocols for health checks. Biologists are currently in the field across the Channel Islands counting island foxes, providing health checks, and administering vaccinations. As part of the 2024 health checks, some individual island foxes will provide a blood sample for transcriptomics. Schoenberger’s genetic study will compliment and build on the individual island fox data currently being collected on diet, microbiome, territory, and health.
Schoenberger was able to travel out to Santa Rosa Island and engage with the National Park biologists as they took samples. She also met individual island foxes that will be part of her investigation.
At USC, Schoenberger explains that she puts the blood samples through a centrifuge “to separate RNA from other particles.”
The samples then go through a chemical processing to isolate and purify the RNA for sequencing.
Schoenberger says: “Transcriptomics can allow insights into gene expression patterns that underlie population health and disease by providing molecular-level understanding of island fox physiology and how they function and respond to differing environmental conditions.” Friends of the Island Fox is thrilled to support Kimberly Schoenberger’s research which will provide a baseline on the differences between populations and “shed light on key genes that are affected by environmental differences and may be crucial for adaptation and survival of the island fox.”
Your donations make this research possible.
photo courtesy of P Bronstein