Landscape Genetic Connectivity and Evidence for Recombination in the North American Population of the White-Nose Syndrome Pathogen, Pseudogymnoascus destructans.

Adrian Forsythe,Jianping Xu,Karen J. Vanderwolf

doi:10.3390/jof7030182

Adrian Forsythe, Jianping Xu + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/jof7030182

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Abstract

White-Nose Syndrome is an ongoing fungal epizootic caused by epidermal infections of the fungus, Pseudogymnoascus destructans (P. destructans), affecting hibernating bat species in North America. Emerging early in 2006 in New York State, infections of P. destructans have spread to 38 US States and seven Canadian Provinces. Since then, clonal isolates of P. destructans have accumulated genotypic and phenotypic variations in North America. Using microsatellite and single nucleotide polymorphism markers, we investigated the population structure and genetic relationships among P. destructans isolates from diverse regions in North America to understand its pattern of spread, and to test hypotheses about factors that contribute to transmission. We found limited support for genetic isolation of P. destructans populations by geographic distance, and instead identified evidence for gene flow among geographic regions. Interestingly, allelic association tests revealed evidence for recombination in the North American P. destructans population. Our landscape genetic analyses revealed that the population structure of P. destructans in North America was significantly influenced by anthropogenic impacts on the landscape. Our results have important implications for understanding the mechanism(s) of P. destructans spread.

Highlights

White-Nose Syndrome (WNS) is caused by the fungal pathogen Pseudogymnoascus destructans (P. destructans)
We considered multiple hypotheses to test the patterns of genetic distance between our sampled sites: (i) Isolation by Distance (IBD) that proposes that gene flow is a function of the Euclidean distance among populations; (ii) Isolation by Environment (IBE) that states that a higher level of gene flow should occur among locations with similar climate; (iii) Isolation by Resistance (IBR) that proposes that gene flow is a function of the resistance distance; and (iv) a null model that assumes the absence of any geographic structure
American P. destructans isolates in our collection using primers targeting nine microsatellite loci (Table S2). These isolates belonged to 42 multilocus genotypes (MLGs). We present these results in combination with the MLG data from [10] to provide a greater context for the genetic relationships among P. destructans isolates in N

Summary

Introduction

White-Nose Syndrome (WNS) is caused by the fungal pathogen Pseudogymnoascus destructans (P. destructans) America)n bats, infections are characterized by the presence of white mycelial growth on the muzzle or wing tissues of bats, leading to the formation of ulcers and the erosion of epithelial tissues [2]. American P. destructans population likely originated from a single European P. destructans migrant strain [3,4]. The European P. destructans population is known to infect local bat species but has no known associated mortality [5,6]

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