Abstract
Recently bats have been associated with the emergence of diseases, both as reservoirs for several new viral diseases in humans and other animals and, in the northern Americas, as hosts for a devastating fungal disease that threatens to drive several bat species to regional extinction. However, despite these catastrophic events little Information is available on bat defences or how they interact with their pathogens. Even less is known about the response of bats to infection during torpor or long-term hibernation. Using tissue samples collected at the termination of an experiment to explore the pathogenesis of White Nose Syndrome in Little Brown Bats, we determined if hibernating bats infected with the fungus Pseudogymnoascus destructans could respond to infection by activating genes responsible for innate immune and stress responses. Lesions due to fungal infection and, in some cases, secondary bacterial infections, were restricted to the skin. However, we were unable to obtain sufficient amounts of RNA from these sites. We therefore examined lungs for response at an epithelial surface not linked to the primary site of infection. We found that bats responded to infection with a significant increase in lungs of transcripts for Cathelicidin (an anti-microbial peptide) as well as the immune modulators tumor necrosis factor alpha and interleukins 10 and 23. In conclusion, hibernating bats can respond to experimental P. destructans infection by activating expression of innate immune response genes.
Highlights
Bats, members of the mammalian order Chiroptera, have evolved a range of characteristics that allow them to adapt to changing environmental conditions
Tissue Samples Fifty four Male M. lucifugus bats were collected from a White Nose Syndrome (WNS)
We demonstrated that the European and North American strains of P. destructans were pathogenic for hibernating M. lucifugus [24,25]
Summary
Members of the mammalian order Chiroptera, have evolved a range of characteristics that allow them to adapt to changing environmental conditions. They are the only mammals capable of powered flight, most bat species undergo torpor to conserve energy and species that inhabit high northern latitudes hibernate for up to eight months with body temperatures below 10uC [1]. Bats are extremely diverse, making up a fifth of all known mammalian species. They occupy a variety of niches across most of the world where they contribute in many ways to ecological balance [2]. With the exception of rabies and other Lyssaviruses, viruses do not appear to cause overt pathology in bats, suggesting the evolution of benign relationships between bats and their pathogens [14,19]
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