The Mycobiome of Bats in the American Southwest Is Structured by Geography, Bat Species, and Behavior

Bats are widespread mammals that play key roles in ecosystems as pollinators and insectivores. However, there is a paucity of information about bat-associated microbes, in particular their fungal communities, despite the important role microbes play in host health and overall host function. The emer...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Microbial ecology 2023-10, Vol.86 (3), p.1565-1574
Main Authors: Kearns, Patrick J., Winter, Ara S., Woodhams, Douglas C., Northup, Diana E.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal diseases
Bats
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Ecology
Fungal diseases
Fungal Microbiology
Fungi
Genera
Geoecology/Natural Processes
Geography
Insectivores
Life Sciences
Microbial Ecology
Microbiology
Microbiomes
Microorganisms
Nature Conservation
Next-generation sequencing
Pathogens
Pollinators
Skin
Taxa
Water Quality/Water Pollution
White-nose syndrome
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Bats are widespread mammals that play key roles in ecosystems as pollinators and insectivores. However, there is a paucity of information about bat-associated microbes, in particular their fungal communities, despite the important role microbes play in host health and overall host function. The emerging fungal disease, white-nose syndrome, presents a potential challenge to the bat microbiome and understanding healthy bat-associated taxa will provide valuable information about potential microbiome-pathogen interactions. To address this knowledge gap, we collected 174 bat fur/skin swabs from 14 species of bats captured in five locations in New Mexico and Arizona and used high-throughput sequencing of the fungal internal transcribed (ITS) region to characterize bat-associated fungal communities. Our results revealed a highly heterogeneous bat mycobiome that was structured by geography and bat species. Furthermore, our data suggest that bat-associated fungal communities are affected by bat foraging, indicating the bat skin microbiota is dynamic on short time scales. Finally, despite the strong effects of site and species, we found widespread and abundant taxa from several taxonomic groups including the genera Alternaria and Metschnikowia that have the potential to be inhibitory towards fungal and bacterial pathogens.
ISSN:0095-3628
1432-184X
DOI:10.1007/s00248-023-02230-w