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Childhood trauma can lead to developmental acceleration: a “live fast, die young” response. Sally Seraphin, 2024 E.E. Just and Whitman Fellow at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL), is exploring this phenomenon using two species of tropical frogs: Fleischmann's glass frogs (Hyalinobatrachium fleischmanni) and red-eyed tree frogs (Agalychnis callidryas).

Both species can hatch from their eggs earlier than normal when stressed, but do so with different triggers: the glass frogs in response to parental neglect (for example, if their father abandons his eggs instead of guarding them) and the red-eyes in response to predatory stress (for example, if a snake begins to eat the eggs). Comparing the two lets Seraphin look for the common genetic mechanisms that allow animals to “either build a body and a brain to support longevity, or build a body and a brain that will take advantage of limited opportunities when faced with acute stress, when the future isn’t promised,” she said.

At the ǧ����Ƶ, Seraphin is embedded in the lab of collaborator Marko Horb of the National Xenopus Resource. So far, Seraphin has identified 170 genes that early-hatching red-eyed tree frogs either “ramp up” or “turn down” when compared to normal-hatching individuals. She hopes to learn the functions of these genes and whether or not early-hatching glass frogs are tweaking the same ones.