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Skin mycobiomes of eastern North American bats

Metadata Updated: July 6, 2024

North American bats have experienced catastrophic population declines from white-nose syndrome (WNS), a fungal disease caused by Pseudogymnoascus destructans (Pd). Although Pd can infect many hibernating bat species, population-level impacts of WNS vary by host species. Microbial skin assemblages, including the fungal component (mycobiome), can influence host resistance to infectious diseases; however, little is known about the influence the skin mycobiome of bats may have on susceptibility to WNS. We sampled ten bat species in the eastern United States that are known to be either susceptible, tolerant, or resistant to WNS by swabbing their wing skin. We then cultured fungi from the swabs, isolated morphologically distinct colonies of fungi, and identified the fungi through DNA sequencing. Using this culture-based approach, we compared skin mycobiome characteristics. The mycobiomes of WNS-susceptible bat species had significantly lower alpha diversity and abundance compared to WNS-tolerant species. Overall mycobiome structure did not vary based on WNS-susceptibility, but several yeast species were differentially abundant on WNS-tolerant bat species. Multi-locus phylogenies and scanning electron microscopy suggest that some yeasts likely represent novel taxa which may be adapted to colonizing bat skin. Further exploration of interactions between Pd and components of the mycobiome may prove useful for predicting susceptibility of bat populations and for developing effective mitigation strategies for WNS.

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

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Dates

Metadata Created Date June 1, 2023
Metadata Updated Date July 6, 2024

Metadata Source

Harvested from DOI EDI

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date June 1, 2023
Metadata Updated Date July 6, 2024
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Maintainer
@Id http://datainventory.doi.gov/id/dataset/0327c80015651e436217a959b5fd037b
Identifier USGS:5cdef4c2e4b038687e296912
Data Last Modified 20201002
Category geospatial
Public Access Level public
Bureau Code 010:12
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Metadata Catalog ID https://datainventory.doi.gov/data.json
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Harvest Object Id fd98a735-fed1-4347-82e5-2bbced9d9e0b
Harvest Source Id 52bfcc16-6e15-478f-809a-b1bc76f1aeda
Harvest Source Title DOI EDI
Metadata Type geospatial
Old Spatial -103.0,29.0,-72.5,47.25
Publisher Hierarchy White House > U.S. Department of the Interior > U.S. Geological Survey
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash e92b3987286f18e309ad2162cbaa6d6b412f1ae05093113f635babe45dc95857
Source Schema Version 1.1
Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": -103.0, 29.0, -103.0, 47.25, -72.5, 47.25, -72.5, 29.0, -103.0, 29.0}

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