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Soil Reservoir Dynamics of Ophidiomyces ophidiicola, the Causative Agent of Snake Fungal Disease

Wildlife diseases pose an ever-growing threat to global biodiversity. Understanding how wildlife pathogens are distributed in the environment and the ability of pathogens to form environmental reservoirs is critical to understanding and predicting disease dynamics within host populations. Snake fung...

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Autores principales: Campbell, Lewis J., Burger, Joanna, Zappalorti, Robert T., Bunnell, John F., Winzeler, Megan E., Taylor, Daniel R., Lorch, Jeffrey M.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8226778/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34201162
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jof7060461
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author Campbell, Lewis J.
Burger, Joanna
Zappalorti, Robert T.
Bunnell, John F.
Winzeler, Megan E.
Taylor, Daniel R.
Lorch, Jeffrey M.
author_facet Campbell, Lewis J.
Burger, Joanna
Zappalorti, Robert T.
Bunnell, John F.
Winzeler, Megan E.
Taylor, Daniel R.
Lorch, Jeffrey M.
author_sort Campbell, Lewis J.
collection PubMed
description Wildlife diseases pose an ever-growing threat to global biodiversity. Understanding how wildlife pathogens are distributed in the environment and the ability of pathogens to form environmental reservoirs is critical to understanding and predicting disease dynamics within host populations. Snake fungal disease (SFD) is an emerging conservation threat to North American snake populations. The causative agent, Ophidiomyces ophidiicola (Oo), is detectable in environmentally derived soils. However, little is known about the distribution of Oo in the environment and the persistence and growth of Oo in soils. Here, we use quantitative PCR to detect Oo in soil samples collected from five snake dens. We compare the detection rates between soils collected from within underground snake hibernacula and associated, adjacent topsoil samples. Additionally, we used microcosm growth assays to assess the growth of Oo in soils and investigate whether the detection and growth of Oo are related to abiotic parameters and microbial communities of soil samples. We found that Oo is significantly more likely to be detected in hibernaculum soils compared to topsoils. We also found that Oo was capable of growth in sterile soil, but no growth occurred in soils with an active microbial community. A number of fungal genera were more abundant in soils that did not permit growth of Oo, versus those that did. Our results suggest that soils may display a high degree of both general and specific suppression of Oo in the environment. Harnessing environmental suppression presents opportunities to mitigate the impacts of SFD in wild snake populations.
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spelling pubmed-82267782021-06-26 Soil Reservoir Dynamics of Ophidiomyces ophidiicola, the Causative Agent of Snake Fungal Disease Campbell, Lewis J. Burger, Joanna Zappalorti, Robert T. Bunnell, John F. Winzeler, Megan E. Taylor, Daniel R. Lorch, Jeffrey M. J Fungi (Basel) Article Wildlife diseases pose an ever-growing threat to global biodiversity. Understanding how wildlife pathogens are distributed in the environment and the ability of pathogens to form environmental reservoirs is critical to understanding and predicting disease dynamics within host populations. Snake fungal disease (SFD) is an emerging conservation threat to North American snake populations. The causative agent, Ophidiomyces ophidiicola (Oo), is detectable in environmentally derived soils. However, little is known about the distribution of Oo in the environment and the persistence and growth of Oo in soils. Here, we use quantitative PCR to detect Oo in soil samples collected from five snake dens. We compare the detection rates between soils collected from within underground snake hibernacula and associated, adjacent topsoil samples. Additionally, we used microcosm growth assays to assess the growth of Oo in soils and investigate whether the detection and growth of Oo are related to abiotic parameters and microbial communities of soil samples. We found that Oo is significantly more likely to be detected in hibernaculum soils compared to topsoils. We also found that Oo was capable of growth in sterile soil, but no growth occurred in soils with an active microbial community. A number of fungal genera were more abundant in soils that did not permit growth of Oo, versus those that did. Our results suggest that soils may display a high degree of both general and specific suppression of Oo in the environment. Harnessing environmental suppression presents opportunities to mitigate the impacts of SFD in wild snake populations. MDPI 2021-06-08 /pmc/articles/PMC8226778/ /pubmed/34201162 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jof7060461 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/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 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Campbell, Lewis J.
Burger, Joanna
Zappalorti, Robert T.
Bunnell, John F.
Winzeler, Megan E.
Taylor, Daniel R.
Lorch, Jeffrey M.
Soil Reservoir Dynamics of Ophidiomyces ophidiicola, the Causative Agent of Snake Fungal Disease
title Soil Reservoir Dynamics of Ophidiomyces ophidiicola, the Causative Agent of Snake Fungal Disease
title_full Soil Reservoir Dynamics of Ophidiomyces ophidiicola, the Causative Agent of Snake Fungal Disease
title_fullStr Soil Reservoir Dynamics of Ophidiomyces ophidiicola, the Causative Agent of Snake Fungal Disease
title_full_unstemmed Soil Reservoir Dynamics of Ophidiomyces ophidiicola, the Causative Agent of Snake Fungal Disease
title_short Soil Reservoir Dynamics of Ophidiomyces ophidiicola, the Causative Agent of Snake Fungal Disease
title_sort soil reservoir dynamics of ophidiomyces ophidiicola, the causative agent of snake fungal disease
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8226778/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34201162
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jof7060461
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