Morphological and Molecular Characterizations of Guanophilic Fungi of Bats
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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Morphological and Molecular Characterizations of Guanophilic Fungi of Bats Pawan Kumar Misra1 • Neelam Kumari Gautam2 • Vadamalai Elangovan1
Received: 14 February 2019 / Revised: 22 July 2019 / Accepted: 24 July 2019 Ó The National Academy of Sciences, India 2019
Abstract Bats are crucial components of an ecosystem and provide many services such as seed dispersal, pollination, and arthropod suppression. Nevertheless, the bats are considered as reservoir hosts of viruses, bacteria, and fungi. The present study describes the fungal diversity associated with the guano of two frugivorous and four insectivorous bat species. The guanophilic fungi were isolated using potato dextrose agar and czapek dox agar culture media and identified by employing classical phenotypic and molecular methods. A total of 18 fungal species belonging to seven genera, five orders, and two phyla were detected and generated 30 new ITS4 barcodes from 30 isolates. The genera Aspergillus and Penicillium were commonly observed in the bat guano; however, species such as Cladosporium tenuissimum, Alternaria tenuissima, Mucor indicus, Sarocladium implicatum, and Pericornia sp. were found as a rare occurrence in bat guano. The guano of insectivorous bats contains more culturable fungal spores than the frugivorous bats, and these levels of insectivorous guano fungal spore pose a threat to the health of people who enter into the roost sites of bats. The unique species composition of guanophilic fungi was probably supported by specific microclimates like constant humidity, and Significance Statement Bat droppings are known to be the reservoir of many fungal species, and roost sites offer suitable conditions for fungal growth. The bat droppings yielded 298 fungal isolates. They belong to 18 species, two phyla, five orders and generated 30 ITS4 barcodes. & Vadamalai Elangovan [email protected] 1
Department of Zoology, Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University, Lucknow, India
2
Department Zoology, University of Lucknow, Lucknow, India
optimum temperature in the historical monuments, abandoned buildings, and temples. Thus, guanophilic fungal monitoring at historical monuments, abandoned buildings, temples, and caves seem to be very important to understand the ecosystem, and it may help to reduce the risk of fungal infections in humans and other mammals. Keywords Bat Fungal diversity Guano Molecular characterization Roosting ecology
Introduction Bats are widely distributed throughout the world with more than 1300 species, representing around 20% of global mammalian diversity [1, 2]. They occupy a variety of habitats due to their high adaptability, and thus they adopt different feeding strategies such as frugivory, hematophagy, insectivory, nectarivory, carnivory, piscivory, and omnivory [3]. They provide important ecosystem services such as seed dispersal, pollination and pest controller due to their diverse feeding strategies. They also act as a carrier of many pathogens, some of them are zoonotic potential [4, 5]. Bats are also c
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