Houston Daily

A University of Houston biologist has secured a $2.16 million federal grant to investigate how certain coastal frogs manage to survive in salty environments, research that could provide new understanding of how cells—including those in humans—respond to salt stress.

The five-year grant was awarded on August 6 by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences to Molly Albecker, who is an assistant professor of biology at the University’s College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics. Albecker and her team will study the effects of salt on frogs at various biological levels, aiming to uncover evolutionary and physiological mechanisms behind salt tolerance in freshwater organisms.

Albecker’s interest in this area began in 2014 when she discovered American green treefrogs (Hyla cinerea) living in brackish marshes on North Carolina’s Outer Banks—a habitat previously thought unsuitable for the species. “It wasn’t just one frog; it was hundreds of frogs that lived in this particular wetland,” Albecker said. “The fact that I made that observation pivoted my research, and it took a more evolutionary focus of: ‘Can some species evolve to handle salt?’”

Her earlier work found that coastal frogs may produce higher amounts of glycerol phosphate dehydrogenase (gpd1), an enzyme involved in generating glycerol, which helps buffer cells against salt stress.

With the new funding from the National Institutes of Health, Albecker’s team will expand their studies across multiple life stages and biological levels—from cellular processes to whole-body physiology—using field sites ranging from Gulf and Atlantic coastal wetlands to inland environments.

“When an adaptation allows an individual to tolerate some kind of stressor, there could be a downstream cost to that adaptation,” Albecker said. “So, we’ll also be looking at the ways that adaptive evolution is compensating and mitigating these long-term costs of dealing with elevated salinities.”

While focused on amphibians, the research could have broader implications for human health by improving understanding of how chronic exposure to high salt affects organs such as kidneys and hearts. This knowledge may inform future medical or therapeutic strategies for managing health impacts associated with high-salt diets.

“Understanding how chronic salt exposure affects organs may highlight novel mechanisms and pathways that inspire medical or therapeutic interventions for health impacts of chronic, high salt diets,” Albecker said.