H2020Индивидуална стипендия2016–2018

EVOL-WNS · Genetic factors contributing to White Nose Syndrome tolerance in North American and European Myotis-bats

„Хоризонт 2020“ — Действия „Мария Склодовска-Кюри“

Период: 2016-11-01 → 2018-10-31
Финансиране от ЕС: 183 455 €
Участници: 1
Схема: MSCA-IF

Линиите свързват координатора с партньорите.

Накратко на български

Генетичните фактори, които помагат на прилепите от род Myotis да издържат на гъбичния синдром „бял нос“, се анализират чрез сравнение на ДНК от Европа и Северна Америка. Това помага да се разберат механизмите за адаптация към патогена при различните популации.

Този кратък обзор е генериран от изкуствен интелект

Кратко обяснение, генерирано от езиков модел по текста на CORDIS. Оригиналът е по-долу.

Резултати накратко

Genetic factors contributing to White Nose Syndrome tolerance in North American and European Myotis-bats

White-Nose Syndrome (WNS) is a fungal disease affecting bats in North-America during hibernation. Since 2007, an estimated 6 million bats have died of the infection, which causes bats to prematurely consume the fat reserves deposited for winter hibernation. The infected bats arouse from hibernation more frequently possibly due to epidermal damage caused by Pseudogymnoascus destructans (Pd), a psychrophilic fungus. Pd originates from Europe, where it has been present for at least some thousands of years. However, European bats appear to be tolerant to the infection. Tolerance has also been observed in remnant populations in the U.S, where local bats have co-existed with the fungus since 2006. The mechanisms leading to adaptation still remain unknown. Here I aim to investigate genetic factors that may contribute to Pd-tolerance in the most frequently infected genus of bats, the Myotis. By using DNA-samples from Myotis-species from two continents, I should observe cross-species selection of the same alleles in European bats and bats in WNS-survivor populations on the east coast of North America. The selection profiles should differ from historic, pre-WNS population, and naïve populations in western North America. Once I have identified suitable candidate genes through whole genome sequencing and detection of selective sweeps, I will hibernate Pd-inoculated European bats and North-American survivor and naïve bats. I will sample the bats at different time points during hibernation to validate whether the selected genes are being differentially expressed in the selected groups. The results will demonstrate the pan-species and population-wide effects of a real-time bottleneck and help us understand the mechanisms promoting tolerance to the pathogen in bat species. The results also allow for the planning of conservation measures in North America by helping predict bat population survival rates and hibernation strategies.

Текст от CORDIS, на английски · Данни: CORDIS, © Европейски съюз

Цел на проекта

White-Nose Syndrome (WNS) is a fungal disease affecting bats during hibernation. Since 2007, an estimated 6 million bats in North-America have died of the infection, which causes bats to prematurely consume the fat reserves deposited for winter hibernation. The infected bats arouse from hibernation more frequently; probably due to epidermal damage caused by Pseudogymnoascus destructans (Pd), a psychrophilic fungus. Pd originates from Europe, however, European bats appear to be tolerant to the infection. Tolerance has also been recently observed in remnant populations in the U.S, where these WNS-survivors have co-existed with the fungus since 2006. The mechanisms leading to adaptation or tolerance remain unknown. Here we aim to investigate genetic factors that may contribute to Pd-tolerance in the most frequently infected genus of bats, Myotis. By using DNA-samples from two Myotis species from North America (Myotis lucifugus) and Europe (Myotis brandtii), we should observe selection in gene orthologs between European bats and bats in WNS-survivor populations. The selection profiles should differ from archived WNS-susceptible bats, sampled before the onset of the wildlife disease. Once we have identified suitable candidate genes with PoolSeq and detection of selective sweeps, we will validate the results by comparing the transcriptomes of both infected WNS-susceptible and infected WNS-survivor M. lucifugus and infected M. brandtii in the last quartile of their hibernation. The results will demonstrate the pan-species and population-wide effects of a real-time bottleneck and help us understand the mechanisms promoting tolerance to the pathogens. The proposal will provide training in technical and transferable skills to allow the experienced researcher to gain a tenured position and achieve impact through conservation measures that help predict bat population survival rates and hibernation strategies.

Оригинален текст от CORDIS (на английски).

Участници

THE UNIVERSITY OF LIVERPOOL · LIVERPOOLКоординаторОбединеното кралство