AUTHOR=Lemieux-Labonté Virginie , Dorville Nicole A. S.-Y. , Willis Craig K. R. , Lapointe François-Joseph 

TITLE=Antifungal Potential of the Skin Microbiota of Hibernating Big Brown Bats (Eptesicus fuscus) Infected With the Causal Agent of White-Nose Syndrome

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Microbiology

VOLUME=11

YEAR=2020

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/microbiology/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2020.01776

DOI=10.3389/fmicb.2020.01776

ISSN=1664-302X

ABSTRACT=<p>Little is known about skin microbiota in the context of the disease white-nose syndrome (WNS), caused by the fungus <italic>Pseudogymnoascus destructans</italic> (<italic>Pd</italic>), that has caused enormous declines of hibernating North American bats over the past decade. Interestingly, some hibernating species, such as the big brown bat (<italic>Eptesicus fuscus</italic>), appear resistant to the disease and their skin microbiota could play a role. However, a comprehensive analysis of the skin microbiota of <italic>E. fuscus</italic> in the context of <italic>Pd</italic> has not been done. In January 2017, we captured hibernating <italic>E. fuscus</italic>, sampled their skin microbiota, and inoculated them with <italic>Pd</italic> or sham inoculum. We allowed the bats to hibernate in the lab under controlled conditions for 11 weeks and then sampled their skin microbiota to test the following hypotheses: (1) <italic>Pd</italic> infection would not disrupt the skin microbiota of <italic>Pd</italic>-resistant <italic>E. fuscus</italic>; and (2) microbial taxa with antifungal properties would be abundant both before and after inoculation with <italic>Pd</italic>. Using high-throughput 16S rRNA gene sequencing, we discovered that beta diversity of <italic>Pd</italic>-inoculated bats changed more over time than that of sham-inoculated bats. Still, the most abundant taxa in the community were stable throughout the experiment. Among the most abundant taxa, <italic>Pseudomonas</italic> and <italic>Rhodococcus</italic> are known for antifungal potential against <italic>Pd</italic> and other fungi. Thus, in contrast to hypothesis 1, <italic>Pd</italic> infection destabilized the skin microbiota but consistent with hypothesis 2, bacteria with known antifungal properties remained abundant and stable on the skin. This study is the first to provide a comprehensive survey of skin microbiota of <italic>E. fuscus</italic>, suggesting potential associations between the bat skin microbiota and resistance to the <italic>Pd</italic> infection and WNS. These results set the stage for future studies to characterize microbiota gene expression, better understand mechanisms of resistance to WNS, and help develop conservation strategies.</p>