Winter Is Coming: Integrative Analysis of Cold Acclimation in a Freeze Tolerant Frog.

ABSTRACT: Cope's gray treefrog Dryophytes chrysoscelis is a seasonally freeze tolerant anuran that undergoes a preparatory period of cold acclimation in order to survive repeated freezing and thawing each winter. The mechanisms that enable freeze tolerance in this species are not entirely understood and the ecophysiological cues that regulate cold acclimation are unstudied. In the present study, we describe aspects of behavior, morphology, and physiology of frogs progressing through cold acclimation, using a previously established protocol of changing light and temperature that successfully induces the capacity to survive whole body freezing and thawing. Wild-caught males were captured in July in southwest Ohio, and behavioral, morphological, and physiological variables were compared beginnin

SUBMITTER: Yokum EE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11933796 | biostudies-literature | 2025

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature