Using a museum collection to understand how frogs respond to disease

Hi I hope you had a peaceful and a productive day, i sent you a message 4 days ago but unfortunately you didn't reply to my message. Still waiting for your response!

Great question! One of my favorite things about genetics is how much information it can give us. High genetic diversity means that a population will have more ways to deal with new stressors (ie high temperatures, new disease, pollution), whereas a population with low genetic diversity essentially has fewer options. So we often want to prioritize conservation efforts for populations with low genetic diversity since they're usually the most vulnerable. Additionally, we can use genetic data to estimate how connected populations are or if they're isolated (think urban development or deforestation) with few individuals moving between them and sharing their genetics. If populations are isolated, we have the same problem as before with low genetic diversity. One option for this, is assisted migration where adapted individuals can be moved to these isolated populations in the hopes of increasing diversity or sharing their adaptive genes. We can't try this form of management without knowing which populations are the most vulnerable or which are adapted. When we know what populations are adapted or not, it can also help us change our own behavior for better conservation. Are we moving between a pond that's adapted to one that's not or doesn't have a disease present yet? Then we should be extra careful to bleach our shoes or other materials that come in contact with water to make sure we're not spreading the disease around. I hope that was helpful!