Eco-epidemiology of Novel Bartonella Genotypes from Parasitic Flies of Insectivorous Bats

Sándor, Attila D.; Földvári, Mihály; Krawczyk, Aleksandra I.; Sprong, Hein; Corduneanu, Alexandra; Barti, Levente; Görföl, Tamás; Estók, Péter; Kováts, Dávid; Szekeres, Sándor; László, Zsuzsanna; Hornok, Sándor; Földvári, Gábor

doi:10.1007/s00248-018-1195-z

Cited by 43 publications

(47 citation statements)

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“…In addition, ectoparasites were sampled during inspection of dead bats collected in the Netherlands between 1993 and 2011 and stored in the Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Leiden, the Netherlands. Bat flies from Hungary and Romania derived from a study by Sándor et al (2018). All bats were morphologically identified to the species level.…”

Section: Study Sites and Specimen Collectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Host Phylogeny, Geographic Overlap, and Roost Sharing Shape Parasite Communities in European Bats

et al. 2019

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How multitrophic relationships between wildlife communities and their ectoparasitic vectors interact to shape the diversity of vector-borne microorganisms is poorly understood. Nested levels of dependence among microbes, vectors, and vertebrate hosts may have complicated effects on both microbial community assembly and evolution. We examined Bartonella sequences from European bats and their ectoparasites with a combination of network analysis, Bayesian phylogenetics, tipassociation and cophylogeny tests, and linear regression to understand the ecological and evolutionary processes that shape parasite communities. We detected seven batectoparasite-Bartonella communities that can be differentiated based on bat families and roosting patterns. Tips of the Bartonella tree were significantly clustered by host taxonomy and geography. We also found significant evidence of evolutionary congruence between bat host and Bartonella phylogenies, indicating that bacterial species have evolved to infect related bat species. Exploring these ecological and evolutionary associations further, we found that sharing of Bartonella species among bat hosts was strongly associated with host phylogenetic distance and roost sharing and less strongly with geographic range overlap. Ectoparasite sharing between hosts was strongly predicted by host phylogenetic distance, roost sharing, and geographic overlap but had no additive effect on Bartonella sharing. Finally, historical Bartonella host-switching was more frequent for closely related bats after accounting for sampling bias among bat species. This study helps to disentangle the complex ecology and evolution of Bartonella bacteria in bat species and their arthropod vectors. Our work provides insight into the important mechanisms that partition parasite communities among hosts, particularly the effect of host phylogeny and roost sharing, and could help to elucidate the evolutionary patterns of other diverse vector-borne microorganisms.

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Section: Study Sites and Specimen Collectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…myotis, My. nattereri, R. blasii, R. euryale, R. ferrumequinum, and R. mehelyi) derived from a study by Sándor et al (2018) in Hungary and Romania were included.…”

Section: Bat Ectoparasitesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Host Phylogeny, Geographic Overlap, and Roost Sharing Shape Parasite Communities in European Bats

et al. 2019

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“…Reports of Bartonella spp. infections are known from blood of bats (Judson et al 2015, Han et al 2017, Urushadze et al 2017), from tissues (Bai et al 2017, Stuckey et al 2017) and from their associated ectoparasites (Morse et al 2012, Davoust et al 2016, Sándor et al 2018, Hornok et al 2019). In our study this pathogen group was found in low proportions, in two samples (2 out of 10, 20%), but the PCR targeting the ITS gene of Bartonella spp.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Bats are the source for many diseases, like for example viruses causing rabies, EBOLA, severe acute respiratory syndrome, and Middle East respiratory syndrome all likely originating in bats (Hayman 2019). Moreover, bats are reservoirs of highly diverse pathogenic bacterial groups, without showing any apparent signs of disease ( Bartonella spp., Corduneanu et al 2018 or haemoplasmas - Holz et al 2019). Bats are able to sustain an energetically demanding lifestyle attained through high basal metabolic rate (active flight).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The heart microbiome of insectivorous bats from Central and South Eastern Europe

Corduneanu

Mihalca

Sándor

et al. 2020

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Host associated microbiome not only may affect the individual health-status or provide insights into the species- or group specific bacterial communities but may act as early warning signs in the assessment of zoonotic reservoirs, offering clues to predict, prevent and control possible episodes of emerging zoonoses. Bats may be carriers and reservoirs of multiple pathogens such as viruses, bacteria and parasites, showing in the same time robust immunity against many of them. The microbiota plays a fundamental role on the induction, training and function of the host immune system and the immune system has largely evolved in order to maintain the symbiotic relationship of the host with these diverse microbes. Thus, expanding our knowledge on bat-associated microbiome it can be usefully in understanding bats’ outstanding immune capacities. The aim of this study was to investigate the presence of different bacterial communities in heart tissue of insectivorous bats, Nyctalus noctula, Pipistrellus pipistrellus and Rhinoplophus hipposideros, from Central and Eastern Europe using high-throughput sequencing of variable regions of the 16S rRNA. In addition, species-specific PCRs were used to validate the presence of the vector-borne pathogens Bartonella spp. and Rickettsia spp. In this study we identified a wide variety of bacterial groups, with the most abundant phyla being Proteobacteria and Firmicutes. The results showed that at individual level, the year or location had no effect on the diversity and composition of the microbiome, however host species determined both structure and abundance of the bacterial community. We report the presence of vector-borne bacteria Bartonella spp. in samples of N. noctula and indications of Rickettsia spp. in R. hipposideros. Our results provide a first insight into the bacterial community found in heart tissue of bats from Central and South Eastern Europe.

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“…Bat flies are vectors of the haemosporidian Polychromophilus spp., a blood parasite closely related to Plasmodium, as well as suspected vectors of other pathogens such as the gram-negative bacteria Bartonella spp. [33][34][35]. Little is known about the interaction between pathogens and bat flies.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of fungal infection on the survival of parasitic bat flies

et al. 2020

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Background: Parasites are able to alter numerous aspects of their hosts' life history, behaviour and distribution. One central question in parasitology is to determine the degree of impact that parasites have on their hosts. Laboulbeniales (Fungi: Ascomycota) are ectoparasitic fungi of arthropods. Even though these fungi are widely distributed, little is known about their ecology and their possible physiological effects on their hosts. We used a highly specific bat fly-fungi association to assess the effect of these fungal parasites on their dipteran hosts. Methods:We collected bat flies (Diptera: Nycteribiidae) belonging to two species, Nycteribia schmidlii and Penicillidia conspicua from their bat host Miniopterus schreibersii (Chiroptera: Miniopteridae). We experimentally tested the effect of infection on the lifespan of bat flies. Results:The prevalence of Laboulbeniales fungi was 17.9% in N. schmidlii and 64.8% in P. conspicua. Two fungi species were identified, Arthrorhynchus eucampsipodae and A. nycteribiae, both showing strict host specificity with N. schmidlii and P. conspicua, respectively. We found that fungal infection reduced by half the survival rate of P. conspicua regardless of sex, whereas N. schmidlii was not affected by the infection. Moreover, the intensity of infection showed negative correlation with the lifespan of P. conspicua. Conclusions:To our knowledge, this is the first indication that fungal infection can alter bat fly survival and thus may play a significant role in the population dynamics of these bat ectoparasites.

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Eco-epidemiology of Novel Bartonella Genotypes from Parasitic Flies of Insectivorous Bats

Cited by 43 publications

References 50 publications

Host Phylogeny, Geographic Overlap, and Roost Sharing Shape Parasite Communities in European Bats

Host Phylogeny, Geographic Overlap, and Roost Sharing Shape Parasite Communities in European Bats

The heart microbiome of insectivorous bats from Central and South Eastern Europe

Effects of fungal infection on the survival of parasitic bat flies

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