Abstract
White Nose Syndrome (WNS) greatly increases the over-winter mortality of little brown (Myotis lucifugus), Indiana (Myotis sodalis), northern (Myotis septentrionalis), and tricolored (Perimyotis subflavus) bats. It is caused by a cutaneous infection with the fungus Pseudogymnoascus destructans (Pd). Big brown bats (Eptesicus fuscus) are much more resistant to cutaneous infection with Pd, however. We thus conducted analyses of wing epidermis from hibernating E. fuscus and M. lucifugus to determine their fatty acid compositions, and laboratory Pd culture experiments at 4.0–13.4°C to determine the effects of these fatty acids on Pd growth. Our analyses revealed that the epidermis of both bat species contain the same 7 fatty acid types (14:0, 15:0, 16:0. 16:1, 18:0, 18:1, & 18:2), but the epidermis of M. lucifugus contains: a) more stearic (18:0) acid, b) less palmitoleic (16:1) acid, c) less myristic (14:0) acid, and, d) less oleic (18:1) acid than that of E. fuscus. The growth of Pd was inhibited by: a) myristic and stearic acids at 10.5–13.4°C, but not at 4.0–5.0°C, b) oleic acid at 5.0–10.6°C, c) palmitoleic acid, and, d) linoleic (18:2) acid at 5.0–10.6°C. One set of factors that enables E. fuscus to better resist cutaneous P. destructans infections (and thus WNS) therefore appears to be the relatively higher myristic, palmitoleic, and oleic acid contents of the epidermis.
Highlights
About 47 bat species occur in North America, and most hibernate during winter [1]
A white fungus associated with Whitenose Syndrome (WNS) has been identified as Pseudogymnoascus destructans (Pd), and it grows on the muzzle, wings, and ears of affected bats during hibernation [3, 4]
This portion of the present study involved wing skin samples collected from the carcasses of M. lucifugus and E. fuscus that were captured and sacrificed using an Isoflurane overdose for 2 previous studies [19, 23], no additional bats were used for the present study
Summary
About 47 bat species occur in North America, and most hibernate during winter [1]. WNS leads to over-winter mortality rates as high as 98% for 4 of the 6 species that over-winter in the northeast: little brown (Myotis lucifugus), Indiana (Myotis sodalis) northern (Myotis septentrionalis) and tricolored (Perimyotis subflavus) bats [2]. A white fungus associated with WNS has been identified as Pseudogymnoascus destructans (Pd), and it grows on the muzzle, wings, and ears of affected bats during hibernation [3, 4]. Histological analyses of affected M. lucifugus, M. septentrionalis, and P. subflavus revealed that Pd hyphae penetrate both the epidermis and dermis, replacing hair follicles, sebaceous and sweat glands [3, 5] during hibernation. Laboratory experiments reveal that cutaneous infection with Pd is the cause of death in WNS-affected bats [7, 8]
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