Ecological and evolutionary drivers of haemoplasma infection and bacterial genotype sharing in a Neotropical bat community
Abstract
Most emerging pathogens can infect multiple species, underlining the importance of understanding the ecological and evolutionary factors that allow some hosts to harbour greater infection prevalence and share pathogens with other species. However, our understanding of pathogen jumps is based primarily around viruses, despite bacteria accounting for the greatest proportion of zoonoses. Because bacterial pathogens in bats (order Chiroptera) can have conservation and human health consequences, studies that examine the ecological and evolutionary drivers of bacterial prevalence and barriers to pathogen sharing are crucially needed. Here were studied haemotropic Mycoplasma spp. (i.e., haemoplasmas) across a species‐rich bat community in Belize over two years. Across 469 bats spanning 33 species, half of individuals and two‐thirds of species were haemoplasma positive. Infection prevalence was higher for males and for species with larger body mass and colony sizes. Haemoplasmas displayed high genetic diversity (21 novel genotypes) and strong host specificity. Evolutionary patterns supported codivergence of bats and bacterial genotypes alongside phylogenetically constrained host shifts. Bat species centrality to the network of shared haemoplasma genotypes was phylogenetically clustered and unrelated to prevalence, further suggesting rare—but detectable—bacterial sharing between species. Our study highlights the importance of using fine phylogenetic scales when assessing host specificity and suggests phylogenetic similarity may play a key role in host shifts not only for viruses but also for bacteria. Such work more broadly contributes to increasing efforts to understand cross‐species transmission and the epidemiological consequences of bacterial pathogens.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Apr 01, 2020
- Source ID
- 10.1111/mec.15422
Entities
People
- Alex D Washburne
- Alexis M. Brown
- Daniel G. Streicker
- Daniel J. Becker
- Dmitriy V. Volokhov
- Kelly A Speer
- M. Brock Fenton
- Nancy B. Simmons
- Raina K. Plowright
- Sonia Alitzer
- Vladimir E. Chizhikov
Organizations
- Achievement Rewards for College Scientists Foundation
- American Museum of Natural History
- American Society of Mammalogists
- Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
- Food and Drug Administration
- Indiana University
- Montana State University
- National Institutes of Health
- National Museum of Natural History
- National Science Foundation
- Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute
- Stony Brook University
- United States Department of Agriculture
- University of Georgia
- University of Glasgow
- Wellcome Trust
- Western University