16S rRNA gene study of bats in the Southwest
This is a collection of scripts, workflow, and data for the microbiom of the bat environment project based out of the University of New Mexico. This project is a subset the Microbiom of the Subsurface Environment and the SLIMETEAM.
The current version of the paper is available here: External Microbiota of Western United States Bats http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2015/04/14/017319 doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/017319
PROJECT OVERVIEW
Recently microbiomes of humpback whales, dolphins, shrimp, and external body parts on humans have generated interest in external microbiota and provide a new framework for microbial ecology, drug discovery, conservation management, and important links to macroecology. However, we have little to no understanding of the external bacteria microbiome on bats or factors that influence the structure of these communities. White-nose syndrome (WNS) is a newly emergent disease that results in moderate to very high mortality in affected bats. Our results provide a first insight into the distribution of external bat bacteria in a WNS-free environment. For this study we used 16S rRNA gene 454 pyrosequencing on 186 bats from 14 species sampled across southeastern New Mexico to northwestern Arizona. The microbial communities on bats in the region were highly variable with representatives from Actinobacteria, Firmicutes, Nitrospira, and Cyanobacteria. The patterns could be partly explained by environmental and local factors, with cave-caught bats sharing more similar external microbial communities based on Bray-Curtis dissimilarity. Bats caught in caves had a distinct microbial community compared to those that were netted on the surface. Our results also suggest that bats caught in the cave have a more homogenized external microbiome.
This information is preliminary and is subject to revision. It is being provided to meet the need for timely best science. The information is provided on the condition that neither the U.S. Geological Survey nor the U.S. Government shall be held liable for any damages resulting from the authorized or unauthorized use of the information.
