Activity of bacteria isolated from bats against Pseudogymnoascus destructans in China

Abstract

White-nose syndrome, a disease that is caused by the psychrophilic fungus Pseudogymnoascus destructans, has threatened several North America bat species with extinction. Recent studies have shown that East Asian bats are infected with P. destructans but show greatly reduced infections. While several factors have been found to contribute to these reduced infections, the role of specific microbes in limiting P. destructans growth remains unexplored. We isolated three bacterial strains with the ability to inhibit P. destructans, namely, Pseudomonas yamanorum GZD14026, Pseudomonas brenneri XRD11711 and Pseudomonas fragi GZD14479, from bats in China. Pseudomonas yamanorum, with the highest inhibition score, was selected to extract antifungal active substance. Combining mass spectrometry (MS) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy analyses, we identified the active compound inhibiting P. destructans as phenazine-1-carboxylic acid (PCA), and the minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) was 50.12 lg ml À1. Whole genome sequencing also revealed the existence of PCA biosynthesis gene clusters. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis identified volatile organic compounds. The results indicated that 10 ppm octanoic acid, 100 ppm 3-tert-butyl-4-hydroxyanisole (isoprenol) and 100 ppm 3-methyl-3-buten-1-ol (BHA) inhibited the growth of P. destructans. These results support that bacteria may play a role in limiting the growth of P. destructans on bats.

Skin Microbiota Variation Among Bat Species in China and Their Potential Defense Against Pathogens

“…For those pathways with gene relative abundances >0.1%, different bat species enriched similar pathways but most of them had significant variation across hosts ( Figures 3B,C ). We analyzed phenazine biosynthesis because of the presence of anti- P. destructans active substances in this pathway ( Li et al, 2022 ); however, no significant variation in gene abundance was found among the bat species ( Supplementary Table 2 ).…”

“…leucogaster in Gezi cave were the highest ( Supplementary Figures 1A,B ), and the OTU richness was also the highest, suggesting the production of more antifungal metabolites (degradation pathways) or more effective competition with the pathogen for resources ( Longo et al, 2015 ). The Pseudomonas isolated from R. ferrumequinum and M. petax in Gezi cave in vitro efficiently inhibited the growth of P. destructans ( Li et al, 2022 ). The BSM class pathways may be involved in bacterial competition within the community and in protecting the host against pathogens ( Rebollar et al, 2016 ).…”

“…Serratia produces prodigiosin that significantly inhibits the growth of B. dendrobatidis and B. salamandrivorans ( Woodhams et al, 2018 ). The phenazine-1-carboxylic acid produced by P. yamanorum GZD14026 isolated from M. petax in Gezi cave effectively inhibited P. destructans ( Li et al, 2022 ). These metabolic pathways could be involved in protecting the host against P. destructans , leading to asymptomatic bats with a low infection burden.…”

“…Usually, the P. destructans load and infection prevalence reach maximum levels during late hibernation ( Langwig et al, 2015 ). It has been proposed that some symbiotic skin bacteria can inhibit the growth of P. destructans ( Hoyt et al, 2015 ; Li et al, 2022 ). Yet, little research on the skin microbiome associated with WNS has been conducted ( Avena et al, 2016 ; Lemieux-Labonté et al, 2017 ; Ange-Stark et al, 2019 ; Li et al, 2021 ; Vanderwolf et al, 2021 ).…”

An overview of bats microbiota and its implication in transmissible diseases

“…The knowledge of the skin microbiota could prove important in counteracting the white-nose syndrome (WNS), a fungal disease caused by Pseudogymnoascus destructans that is responsible for the deaths of millions of bats in North America (see in the Fungi section; Hoyt et al, 2021 ). Several bat’s skin bacteria are able to inhibit the growth of this fungus such as Pseudomonas and Streptomyces genera ( Hoyt et al, 2015 ; Hamm et al, 2017 ; Lemieux-Labonté et al, 2017 ; Li A. et al, 2021 ; Li Z. et al, 2021 ).…”