Mississippi State University

Mississippi State University, in collaboration with Michigan State University, Fort Worth Zoo, the Omaha Henry Doorly Zoo, Detroit Zoo, Central Florida Zoo, and the Association of Zoos and Aquariums' Amphibian Taxonomic Advisory Group, will lead a multi-institutional project to develop innovative and exportable assisted reproductive technologies to create the country's first salamander genome resource bank and provide the necessary training to continue sustainability of these living collections. The captive assurance colonies for a number of threatened salamander species that are established in zoos and aquariums around the world are no longer sustainable and in danger of collapse. The project's research and training objectives are to develop innovative technologies for the collection and cryopreservation of salamander reproductive material; test the transferability of protocols for application to salamander collections care management; and advance knowledge by training the current and next generation of professionals in these technologies so they are transferable, exportable, and sustainable at a national level.