scholarly journals Genome-Wide Changes in Genetic Diversity in a Population of Myotis lucifugus Affected by White-Nose Syndrome

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 2007-2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas M. Lilley ◽  
Ian W. Wilson ◽  
Kenneth A. Field ◽  
DeeAnn M. Reeder ◽  
Megan E. Vodzak ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
North America ◽  
Selective Pressure ◽  
Genetic Resistance ◽  
Myotis Lucifugus ◽  
Eastern North America ◽  
Multiple Factors ◽  
White Nose Syndrome ◽  
Genome Wide ◽  
Evolution Of Resistance

Novel pathogens can cause massive declines in populations, and even extirpation of hosts. But disease can also act as a selective pressure on survivors, driving the evolution of resistance or tolerance. Bat white-nose syndrome (WNS) is a rapidly spreading wildlife disease in North America. The fungus causing the disease invades skin tissues of hibernating bats, resulting in disruption of hibernation behavior, premature energy depletion, and subsequent death. We used whole-genome sequencing to investigate changes in allele frequencies within a population of Myotis lucifugus in eastern North America to search for genetic resistance to WNS. Our results show low FST values within the population across time, i.e., prior to WNS (Pre-WNS) compared to the population that has survived WNS (Post-WNS). However, when dividing the population with a geographical cut-off between the states of Pennsylvania and New York, a sharp increase in values on scaffold GL429776 is evident in the Post-WNS samples. Genes present in the diverged area are associated with thermoregulation and promotion of brown fat production. Thus, although WNS may not have subjected the entire M. lucifugus population to selective pressure, it may have selected for specific alleles in Pennsylvania through decreased gene flow within the population. However, the persistence of remnant sub-populations in the aftermath of WNS is likely due to multiple factors in bat life history.

scholarly journals Genome-wide changes in genetic diversity in a population of Myotis lucifugus affected by white-nose syndrome

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas M. Lilley ◽  
Ian W. Wilson ◽  
Kenneth A. Field ◽  
DeeAnn M. Reeder ◽  
Megan E. Vodzak ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
North America ◽  
Selective Pressure ◽  
Genetic Resistance ◽  
Myotis Lucifugus ◽  
Eastern North America ◽  
Multiple Factors ◽  
White Nose Syndrome ◽  
Genome Wide ◽  
Evolution Of Resistance

ABSTRACTNovel pathogens can cause massive declines in populations, and even extirpation of hosts. But disease can also act as a selective pressure on survivors, driving the evolution of resistance or tolerance. Bat white-nose syndrome (WNS) is a rapidly spreading wildlife disease in North America. The fungus causing the disease invades skin tissues of hibernating bats, resulting in disruption of hibernation behavior, premature energy depletion, and subsequent death. We used whole-genome sequencing to investigate changes in allele frequencies within a population of Myotis lucifugus in eastern North America to search for genetic resistance to WNS. Our results show low FST values within the population across time, i.e. prior to WNS (Pre-WNS) compared to the population that has survived WNS (Post-WNS). However, when dividing the population with a geographical cut-off between the states of Pennsylvania and New York, a sharp increase in values on scaffold GL429776 is evident in the Post-WNS samples. Genes present in the diverged area are associated with thermoregulation and promotion of brown fat production. Thus, although WNS may not have subjected the entire M. lucifugus population to selective pressure, it may have selected for specific alleles in Pennsylvania through decreased gene flow within the population. However, the persistence of remnant sub-populations in the aftermath of WNS is likely due to multiple factors in bat life history.

scholarly journals First Detection of Bat White-Nose Syndrome in Western North America

mSphere ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey M. Lorch ◽  
Jonathan M. Palmer ◽  
Daniel L. Lindner ◽  
Anne E. Ballmann ◽  
Kyle G. George ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
North America ◽  
Pacific Northwest ◽  
Abundant Species ◽  
Mitigation Strategies ◽  
Eastern North America ◽  
Western North America ◽  
Wildlife Diseases ◽  
White Nose Syndrome ◽  
The Pacific

ABSTRACT White-nose syndrome (WNS) represents one of the most consequential wildlife diseases of modern times. Since it was first documented in New York in 2006, the disease has killed millions of bats and threatens several formerly abundant species with extirpation or extinction. The spread of WNS in eastern North America has been relatively gradual, inducing optimism that disease mitigation strategies could be established in time to conserve bats susceptible to WNS in western North America. The recent detection of the fungus that causes WNS in the Pacific Northwest, far from its previous known distribution, increases the urgency for understanding the long-term impacts of this disease and for developing strategies to conserve imperiled bat species. White-nose syndrome (WNS) is an emerging fungal disease of bats caused by Pseudogymnoascus destructans. Since it was first detected near Albany, NY, in 2006, the fungus has spread across eastern North America, killing unprecedented numbers of hibernating bats. The devastating impacts of WNS on Nearctic bat species are attributed to the likely introduction of P. destructans from Eurasia to naive host populations in eastern North America. Since 2006, the disease has spread in a gradual wavelike pattern consistent with introduction of the pathogen at a single location. Here, we describe the first detection of P. destructans in western North America in a little brown bat (Myotis lucifugus) from near Seattle, WA, far from the previously recognized geographic distribution of the fungus. Whole-genome sequencing and phylogenetic analyses indicated that the isolate of P. destructans from Washington grouped with other isolates of a presumed clonal lineage from the eastern United States. Thus, the occurrence of P. destructans in Washington does not likely represent a novel introduction of the fungus from Eurasia, and the lack of intensive surveillance in the western United States makes it difficult to interpret whether the occurrence of P. destructans in the Pacific Northwest is disjunct from that in eastern North America. Although there is uncertainty surrounding the impacts of WNS in the Pacific Northwest, the presence of the pathogen in western North America could have major consequences for bat conservation. IMPORTANCE White-nose syndrome (WNS) represents one of the most consequential wildlife diseases of modern times. Since it was first documented in New York in 2006, the disease has killed millions of bats and threatens several formerly abundant species with extirpation or extinction. The spread of WNS in eastern North America has been relatively gradual, inducing optimism that disease mitigation strategies could be established in time to conserve bats susceptible to WNS in western North America. The recent detection of the fungus that causes WNS in the Pacific Northwest, far from its previous known distribution, increases the urgency for understanding the long-term impacts of this disease and for developing strategies to conserve imperiled bat species.

scholarly journals Exceptional Longevity in Little Brown Bats Still Occurs, despite Presence of White-Nose Syndrome

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 583-587
Author(s):  
Allen Kurta ◽  
Rodney W. Foster ◽  
Brooke A. Daly ◽  
Ashley K. Wilson ◽  
Robin M. Slider ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Fungal Disease ◽  
Myotis Lucifugus ◽  
Eastern North America ◽  
Exceptional Longevity ◽  
White Nose Syndrome ◽  
Long Life ◽  
Healthy Males ◽  
Apparently Healthy ◽  
Little Brown Bats

Abstract White-nose syndrome is an introduced fungal disease that has reduced the size of hibernating populations of little brown bats Myotis lucifugus by 90% across much of eastern North America since 2007. Herein, we report the recapture of eight banded little brown bats, all males, with minimum ages of 18.6–25.6 y. The recaptures occurred during winter 2019–2020, at a hibernaculum in Michigan where white-nose syndrome likely has been present since 2013–2014, indicating that these old and apparently healthy males are in their seventh season of exposure to the disease. Hence, our data suggest that a long life in little brown bats and existence of white-nose syndrome are not necessarily incompatible.

Delthyris sculptilis Hall, 1843 (Brachiopoda) from the Middle Devonian Hamilton Group is a Megakozlowskiella

1986 ◽  
Vol 60 (4) ◽  
pp. 965-967
Author(s):  
William F. Koch
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
North America ◽  
Middle Devonian ◽  
Eastern North America ◽  
Upper Limit ◽  
Hamilton Group

Delthyris sculptilis Hall, 1843, from the Middle Devonian Hamilton Group of New York and equivalent rocks elsewhere in eastern North America, has long been assigned to the genus Delthyris or, in certain older studies, to the genus Spirifer. Recent restudy of this brachiopod shows that it belongs to the genus Megakozlowskiella Boucot, 1962. This extends the upper limit of Megakozlowskiella from the Eifelian (Southwood Stage, Onondaga Limestone in New York) to the Givetian (Tioughnioga Stage, Moscow Formation of the Hamilton Group in New York).

Little Brown Myotis Persist Despite Exposure to White-Nose Syndrome

2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 190-195 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher A. Dobony ◽  
Alan C. Hicks ◽  
Kate E. Langwig ◽  
Ryan I. von Linden ◽  
Joseph C. Okoniewski ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Myotis Lucifugus ◽  
White Nose Syndrome ◽  
Military Installation ◽  
Myotis Myotis ◽  
Fort Drum ◽  
Wing Damage

Abstract We monitored a maternity colony of little brown myotis Myotis lucifugus on Fort Drum Military Installation in northern New York in 2009 and 2010 for impacts associated with white-nose syndrome. Declines in colony numbers presumed to be caused by white-nose syndrome were initially discovered in the spring 2009. Although colony numbers have continued to decline, we determined that a minimum of 12 individual banded female little brown myotis survived over multiple years despite exposure to white-nose syndrome. Our results also provide evidence that 14 of 20 recaptured female little brown myotis were able to heal from wing damage and infection associated with white-nose syndrome within a given year, and seven of eight recaptures from within both 2009 and 2010 showed evidence of reproduction.

Patterns of Acoustical Activity of Bats Prior to and Following White-Nose Syndrome Occurrence

2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 125-134 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. Mark Ford ◽  
Eric R. Britzke ◽  
Christopher A. Dobony ◽  
Jane L. Rodrigue ◽  
Joshua B. Johnson
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Activity Patterns ◽  
Local Population ◽  
Late Summer ◽  
Time Frame ◽  
Myotis Lucifugus ◽  
Health Concern ◽  
Activity Levels ◽  
White Nose Syndrome ◽  
Little Brown Bats

Abstract White-nose Syndrome (WNS), a wildlife health concern that has decimated cave-hibernating bat populations in eastern North America since 2006, began affecting source-caves for summer bat populations at Fort Drum, a U.S. Army installation in New York in the winter of 2007–2008. As regional die-offs of bats became evident, and Fort Drum's known populations began showing declines, we examined whether WNS-induced change in abundance patterns and seasonal timing of bat activity could be quantified using acoustical surveys, 2003–2010, at structurally uncluttered riparian–water habitats (i.e., streams, ponds, and wet meadows). As predicted, we observed significant declines in overall summer activity between pre-WNS and post-WNS years for little brown bats Myotis lucifugus, northern bats M. septentrionalis, and Indiana bats M. sodalis. We did not observe any significant change in activity patterns between pre-WNS and post-WNS years for big brown bats Eptesicus fuscus, eastern red bats Lasiurus borealis, or the small number of tri-colored bats Perimyotis subflavus. Activity of silver-haired bats Lasionycteris noctivagans increased from pre-WNS to post-WNS years. Activity levels of hoary bats Lasiurus cinereus significantly declined between pre- and post-WNS years. As a nonhibernating, migratory species, hoary bat declines might be correlated with wind-energy development impacts occurring in the same time frame rather than WNS. Intraseason activity patterns also were affected by WNS, though the results were highly variable among species. Little brown bats showed an overall increase in activity from early to late summer pre-WNS, presumably due to detections of newly volant young added to the local population. However, the opposite occurred post-WNS, indicating that reproduction among surviving little brown bats may be declining. Our data suggest that acoustical monitoring during the summer season can provide insights into species' relative abundance on the landscape as affected by the occurrence of WNS.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document