Western Illinois University1, Biological Sciences, Macomb, IL 61455 University of Illinois2, Illinois Natural History Survey, Champaign, IL 61820 University of Florida3, Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation, Gainesville, FL 32611 US Forest Service4, Shawnee National, Hidden Springs RD, vienna, IL 62995 Illinois Department of Natural Resources5, Springfield, IL 62702
Since 2006, over 5.5 million bats have died from White Nose Syndrome (WNS) in the northeast United States and Canada. A novel fungus, Geomyces destructans, causes WNS. Cave soils and WNS positive bats have shown to be reservoirs for G. destructans. Objectives for this study were: 1) to document fungi associated with hibernating Illinois bats, and 2) to isolate potential Geomyces species and document potential pathogens amongst Illinois bats. Since Illinois is thought to be WNS-free although surrounded by states positive for WNS, it is an ideal location to study bat fungal flora prior to WNS. We sampled 30 bats from four hibernacula in northern Illinois. From three bat species surveyed, Myotis septentrionalis, M. sodalis and Perimyotis subflavus, we isolated and sequenced 150 fungal isolates. Approximately 53 OTUs at 97% similarity were found. Common species isolated from bats included Cladosporium, Geomyces, Fusarium, Mortierella, Penicillium and Trichosporon. Eleven Geomyces isolates were obtained from all bat species and phylogenetic analysis using ITS rDNA, Mcm7 and LSU region revealed multiple Geomyces clades associated with bats with at least three potential novel clades. Our results suggest widespread distribution of Geomyces among bats can lead to false positives when detecting WNS and further research needs to be conducted to determine potential roles of these fungal communities in bats.
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