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Landscape Connectivity Limits the Predicted Impact of Fungal Pathogen Invasion

Infectious diseases are major drivers of biodiversity loss. The risk of fungal diseases to the survival of threatened animals in nature is determined by a complex interplay between host, pathogen and environment. We here predict the risk of invasion of populations of threatened Mediterranean salaman...

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Autores principales: Li, Zhimin, Martel, An, Bogaerts, Sergé, Göçmen, Bayram, Pafilis, Panayiotis, Lymberakis, Petros, Woeltjes, Tonnie, Veith, Michael, Pasmans, Frank
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7712934/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33022972
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jof6040205
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author Li, Zhimin
Martel, An
Bogaerts, Sergé
Göçmen, Bayram
Pafilis, Panayiotis
Lymberakis, Petros
Woeltjes, Tonnie
Veith, Michael
Pasmans, Frank
author_facet Li, Zhimin
Martel, An
Bogaerts, Sergé
Göçmen, Bayram
Pafilis, Panayiotis
Lymberakis, Petros
Woeltjes, Tonnie
Veith, Michael
Pasmans, Frank
author_sort Li, Zhimin
collection PubMed
description Infectious diseases are major drivers of biodiversity loss. The risk of fungal diseases to the survival of threatened animals in nature is determined by a complex interplay between host, pathogen and environment. We here predict the risk of invasion of populations of threatened Mediterranean salamanders of the genus Lyciasalamandra by the pathogenic chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans by combining field sampling and lab trials. In 494 samples across all seven species of Lyciasalamandra, B. salamandrivorans was found to be absent. Single exposure to a low (1000) number of fungal zoospores resulted in fast buildup of lethal infections in three L. helverseni. Thermal preference of the salamanders was well within the thermal envelope of the pathogen and body temperatures never exceeded the fungus’ thermal critical maximum, limiting the salamanders’ defense opportunities. The relatively low thermal host preference largely invalidates macroclimatic based habitat suitability predictions and, combined with current pathogen absence and high host densities, suggests a high probability of local salamander population declines upon invasion by B. salamandrivorans. However, the unfavorable landscape that shaped intraspecific host genetic diversity, lack of known alternative hosts and rapid host mortality after infection present barriers to further, natural pathogen dispersal between populations and thus species extinction. The risk of anthropogenic spread stresses the importance of biosecurity in amphibian habitats.
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spelling pubmed-77129342020-12-04 Landscape Connectivity Limits the Predicted Impact of Fungal Pathogen Invasion Li, Zhimin Martel, An Bogaerts, Sergé Göçmen, Bayram Pafilis, Panayiotis Lymberakis, Petros Woeltjes, Tonnie Veith, Michael Pasmans, Frank J Fungi (Basel) Article Infectious diseases are major drivers of biodiversity loss. The risk of fungal diseases to the survival of threatened animals in nature is determined by a complex interplay between host, pathogen and environment. We here predict the risk of invasion of populations of threatened Mediterranean salamanders of the genus Lyciasalamandra by the pathogenic chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans by combining field sampling and lab trials. In 494 samples across all seven species of Lyciasalamandra, B. salamandrivorans was found to be absent. Single exposure to a low (1000) number of fungal zoospores resulted in fast buildup of lethal infections in three L. helverseni. Thermal preference of the salamanders was well within the thermal envelope of the pathogen and body temperatures never exceeded the fungus’ thermal critical maximum, limiting the salamanders’ defense opportunities. The relatively low thermal host preference largely invalidates macroclimatic based habitat suitability predictions and, combined with current pathogen absence and high host densities, suggests a high probability of local salamander population declines upon invasion by B. salamandrivorans. However, the unfavorable landscape that shaped intraspecific host genetic diversity, lack of known alternative hosts and rapid host mortality after infection present barriers to further, natural pathogen dispersal between populations and thus species extinction. The risk of anthropogenic spread stresses the importance of biosecurity in amphibian habitats. MDPI 2020-10-03 /pmc/articles/PMC7712934/ /pubmed/33022972 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jof6040205 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Li, Zhimin
Martel, An
Bogaerts, Sergé
Göçmen, Bayram
Pafilis, Panayiotis
Lymberakis, Petros
Woeltjes, Tonnie
Veith, Michael
Pasmans, Frank
Landscape Connectivity Limits the Predicted Impact of Fungal Pathogen Invasion
title Landscape Connectivity Limits the Predicted Impact of Fungal Pathogen Invasion
title_full Landscape Connectivity Limits the Predicted Impact of Fungal Pathogen Invasion
title_fullStr Landscape Connectivity Limits the Predicted Impact of Fungal Pathogen Invasion
title_full_unstemmed Landscape Connectivity Limits the Predicted Impact of Fungal Pathogen Invasion
title_short Landscape Connectivity Limits the Predicted Impact of Fungal Pathogen Invasion
title_sort landscape connectivity limits the predicted impact of fungal pathogen invasion
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7712934/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33022972
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jof6040205
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