Scientists have unlocked the cane toad’s genome, opening the way to find viruses that may help control the invasive and deadly pest’s booming population.

September 20, 2018

Australia’s self-inflicted cane toad invasion may soon be over after scientists cracked the deadly amphibian’s DNA code.

International scientists working with UNSW Sydney, the University of Sydney and Deakin University have unlocked more than 90 per cent of the invasive amphibian’s genome.

The poisonous toads have wreaked havoc on northern quolls, freshwater crocodiles and several species of native lizards and snakes since their introduction in Queensland in 1935 to help control cane beetles.

Millions of toads now occupy more than 1.2 million square kilometres of Australia following a seemingly unstoppable march across the top end.

Virologist Professor Peter White says despite the pesky cane toad’s iconic status there were major gaps in the scientistic community’s understanding of its genetics.

“But we’ve now got the blueprint as well as the plans to the factory,” he told AAP.

Already Prof White’s team has used the toad’s genetics to find three new viruses that with further work may become biocontrols to stem the toad’s march across the country.

“We’re now going to see how prevalent they are in the population, going all the way back to South America, and then we’ll see how pathogenic they are,” he said.

“Hopefully, they’re very pathogenic, and then we can begin testing them.”

Prof White said the team needed to be sure any biocontrol created won’t affect native amphibians.

“We don’t want to introduce anything that’s going to kill frogs or newts, it has to be cane toad specific,” he said.

Viruses have previously been successfully used to control the European rabbit population. 

The findings were published in the academic journal GigaScience.