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Fleischer R, Eibner GJ, Schwensow NI, Pirzer F, Paraskevopoulou S, Mayer G, Corman VM, Drosten C, Wilhelm K, Heni AC, Sommer S, Schmid DW. Immunogenetic-pathogen networks shrink in Tome's spiny rat, a generalist rodent inhabiting disturbed landscapes. Commun Biol 2024; 7:169. [PMID: 38341501 PMCID: PMC10858909 DOI: 10.1038/s42003-024-05870-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/10/2023] [Accepted: 01/29/2024] [Indexed: 02/12/2024] Open
Abstract
Anthropogenic disturbance may increase the emergence of zoonoses. Especially generalists that cope with disturbance and live in close contact with humans and livestock may become reservoirs of zoonotic pathogens. Yet, whether anthropogenic disturbance modifies host-pathogen co-evolutionary relationships in generalists is unknown. We assessed pathogen diversity, neutral genome-wide diversity (SNPs) and adaptive MHC class II diversity in a rodent generalist inhabiting three lowland rainforest landscapes with varying anthropogenic disturbance, and determined which MHC alleles co-occurred more frequently with 13 gastrointestinal nematodes, blood trypanosomes, and four viruses. Pathogen-specific selection pressures varied between landscapes. Genome-wide diversity declined with the degree of disturbance, while MHC diversity was only reduced in the most disturbed landscape. Furthermore, pristine forest landscapes had more functional important MHC-pathogen associations when compared to disturbed forests. We show co-evolutionary links between host and pathogens impoverished in human-disturbed landscapes. This underscores that parasite-mediated selection might change even in generalist species following human disturbance which in turn may facilitate host switching and the emergence of zoonoses.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ramona Fleischer
- Institute of Evolutionary Ecology and Conservation Genomics, University of Ulm, Ulm, Germany
| | - Georg Joachim Eibner
- Institute of Evolutionary Ecology and Conservation Genomics, University of Ulm, Ulm, Germany
- Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panamá, República de Panamá
- Institute of Virology, Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany
| | - Nina Isabell Schwensow
- Institute of Evolutionary Ecology and Conservation Genomics, University of Ulm, Ulm, Germany
| | - Fabian Pirzer
- Institute of Virology, Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany
| | | | - Gerd Mayer
- Institute of Evolutionary Ecology and Conservation Genomics, University of Ulm, Ulm, Germany
| | - Victor Max Corman
- Institute of Virology, Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany
- Robert Koch Institute, Nordufer 20, Berlin, 13353, Germany
| | - Christian Drosten
- Institute of Virology, Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany
- Robert Koch Institute, Nordufer 20, Berlin, 13353, Germany
- German Centre for Infection Research (DZIF), Berlin, Germany
| | - Kerstin Wilhelm
- Institute of Evolutionary Ecology and Conservation Genomics, University of Ulm, Ulm, Germany
| | - Alexander Christoph Heni
- Institute of Evolutionary Ecology and Conservation Genomics, University of Ulm, Ulm, Germany
- Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panamá, República de Panamá
| | - Simone Sommer
- Institute of Evolutionary Ecology and Conservation Genomics, University of Ulm, Ulm, Germany.
| | - Dominik Werner Schmid
- Institute of Evolutionary Ecology and Conservation Genomics, University of Ulm, Ulm, Germany
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Heni AC, Fackelmann G, Eibner G, Kreinert S, Schmid J, Schwensow NI, Wiegand J, Wilhelm K, Sommer S. Wildlife gut microbiomes of sympatric generalist species respond differently to anthropogenic landscape disturbances. Anim Microbiome 2023; 5:22. [PMID: 37024947 PMCID: PMC10080760 DOI: 10.1186/s42523-023-00237-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/21/2022] [Accepted: 02/23/2023] [Indexed: 04/08/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Human encroachment into nature and the accompanying environmental changes are a big concern for wildlife biodiversity and health. While changes on the macroecological scale, i.e. species community and abundance pattern, are well documented, impacts on the microecological scale, such as the host's microbial community, remain understudied. Particularly, it is unclear if impacts of anthropogenic landscape modification on wildlife gut microbiomes are species-specific. Of special interest are sympatric, generalist species, assumed to be more resilient to environmental changes and which often are well-known pathogen reservoirs and drivers of spill-over events. Here, we analyzed the gut microbiome of three such sympatric, generalist species, one rodent (Proechimys semispinosus) and two marsupials (Didelphis marsupialis and Philander opossum), captured in 28 study sites in four different landscapes in Panama characterized by different degrees of anthropogenic disturbance. RESULTS Our results show species-specific gut microbial responses to the same landscape disturbances. The gut microbiome of P. semispinosus was less diverse and more heterogeneous in landscapes with close contact with humans, where it contained bacterial taxa associated with humans, their domesticated animals, and potential pathogens. The gut microbiome of D. marsupialis showed similar patterns, but only in the most disturbed landscape. P. opossum, in contrast, showed little gut microbial changes, however, this species' absence in the most fragmented landscapes indicates its sensitivity to long-term isolation. CONCLUSION These results demonstrate that wildlife gut microbiomes even in generalist species with a large ecological plasticity are impacted by human encroachment into nature, but differ in resilience which can have critical implications on conservation efforts and One Health strategies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alexander Christoph Heni
- Institute of Evolutionary Ecology and Conservation Genomics, Ulm University, 89081, Ulm, Germany.
- Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Balboa, Ancón, Republic of Panama.
| | - Gloria Fackelmann
- Institute of Evolutionary Ecology and Conservation Genomics, Ulm University, 89081, Ulm, Germany
| | - Georg Eibner
- Institute of Evolutionary Ecology and Conservation Genomics, Ulm University, 89081, Ulm, Germany
- Institute of Virology, Campus Charité Mitte, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, corporate member of Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and Berlin Institute of Health, 10117, Berlin, Germany
| | - Swetlana Kreinert
- Institute of Evolutionary Ecology and Conservation Genomics, Ulm University, 89081, Ulm, Germany
| | - Julian Schmid
- Institute of Evolutionary Ecology and Conservation Genomics, Ulm University, 89081, Ulm, Germany
- Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Balboa, Ancón, Republic of Panama
| | - Nina Isabell Schwensow
- Institute of Evolutionary Ecology and Conservation Genomics, Ulm University, 89081, Ulm, Germany
| | - Jonas Wiegand
- Institute of Evolutionary Ecology and Conservation Genomics, Ulm University, 89081, Ulm, Germany
| | - Kerstin Wilhelm
- Institute of Evolutionary Ecology and Conservation Genomics, Ulm University, 89081, Ulm, Germany
| | - Simone Sommer
- Institute of Evolutionary Ecology and Conservation Genomics, Ulm University, 89081, Ulm, Germany.
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Kim SL, Choi JH, Yi MH, Lee S, Kim M, Oh S, Lee IY, Jeon BY, Yong TS, Kim JY. Metabarcoding of bacteria and parasites in the gut of Apodemus agrarius. Parasit Vectors 2022; 15:486. [PMID: 36564849 PMCID: PMC9789561 DOI: 10.1186/s13071-022-05608-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/05/2022] [Accepted: 12/03/2022] [Indexed: 12/24/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND The striped field mouse Apodemus agrarius is a wild rodent commonly found in fields in Korea. It is a known carrier of various pathogens. Amplicon-based next-generation sequencing (NGS) targeting the 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene is the most common technique used to analyze the bacterial microbiome. Although many bacterial microbiome analyses have been attempted using feces of wild animals, only a few studies have used NGS to screen for parasites. This study aimed to rapidly detect bacterial, fungal and parasitic pathogens in the guts of A. agrarius using NGS-based metabarcoding analysis. METHODS We conducted 18S/16S rDNA-targeted high-throughput sequencing on cecal samples collected from A. agrarius (n = 48) trapped in May and October 2017. Taxa of protozoa, fungi, helminths and bacteria in the cecal content were then identified. RESULTS Among the protozoa identified, the most prevalent was Tritrichomonas sp., found in all of the cecal samples, followed by Monocercomonas sp. (95.8% prevalence; in 46/48 samples) and Giardia sp. (75% prevalence; in 36/48 samples). For helminths, Heligmosomoides sp. was the most common, found in 85.4% (41/48) of samples, followed by Hymenolepis sp. (10.4%; 5/48) and Syphacia sp. (25%; 12/48). The 16S rRNA gene analysis showed that the microbial composition of the cecal samples changed by season (P = 0.005), with the linear discriminant analysis effect size showing that in the spring Escherichia coli and Lactobacillus murinus were more abundant and Helicobacter rodentium was less abundant. Helicobacter japonicus was more abundant and Prevotella_uc was less abundant in males. The microbial composition changed based on the Heligmosomoides sp. infection status (P = 0.019); specifically, Lactobacillus gasseri and Lactobacillus intestinalis were more abundant in the Heligmosomoides sp.-positive group than in the Heligmosomoides sp.-negative group. CONCLUSIONS This study demonstrated that bacterial abundance changed based on the season and specific parasitic infection status of the trapped mice. These results highlight the advantages of NGS technology in monitoring zoonotic disease reservoirs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Soo Lim Kim
- grid.15444.300000 0004 0470 5454Department of Environmental Medical Biology, Institute of Tropical Medicine, and Arthropods of Medical Importance Resource Bank, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, 03722 Republic of Korea
| | - Jun Ho Choi
- grid.15444.300000 0004 0470 5454Department of Environmental Medical Biology, Institute of Tropical Medicine, and Arthropods of Medical Importance Resource Bank, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, 03722 Republic of Korea
| | - Myung-hee Yi
- grid.15444.300000 0004 0470 5454Department of Environmental Medical Biology, Institute of Tropical Medicine, and Arthropods of Medical Importance Resource Bank, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, 03722 Republic of Korea
| | - Seogwon Lee
- grid.15444.300000 0004 0470 5454Department of Environmental Medical Biology, Institute of Tropical Medicine, and Arthropods of Medical Importance Resource Bank, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, 03722 Republic of Korea
| | - Myungjun Kim
- grid.15444.300000 0004 0470 5454Department of Environmental Medical Biology, Institute of Tropical Medicine, and Arthropods of Medical Importance Resource Bank, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, 03722 Republic of Korea
| | - Singeun Oh
- grid.15444.300000 0004 0470 5454Department of Environmental Medical Biology, Institute of Tropical Medicine, and Arthropods of Medical Importance Resource Bank, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, 03722 Republic of Korea
| | - In-Yong Lee
- grid.15444.300000 0004 0470 5454Department of Environmental Medical Biology, Institute of Tropical Medicine, and Arthropods of Medical Importance Resource Bank, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, 03722 Republic of Korea
| | - Bo-Young Jeon
- grid.15444.300000 0004 0470 5454Department of Biomedical Laboratory Science, College of Health Science, Yonsei University, Wonju, 26493 Republic of Korea
| | - Tai-Soon Yong
- grid.15444.300000 0004 0470 5454Department of Environmental Medical Biology, Institute of Tropical Medicine, and Arthropods of Medical Importance Resource Bank, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, 03722 Republic of Korea
| | - Ju Yeong Kim
- grid.15444.300000 0004 0470 5454Department of Environmental Medical Biology, Institute of Tropical Medicine, and Arthropods of Medical Importance Resource Bank, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, 03722 Republic of Korea
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Müller-Klein N, Risely A, Schmid DW, Manser M, Clutton-Brock T, Sommer S. Two decades of tuberculosis surveillance reveal disease spread, high levels of exposure and mortality and marked variation in disease progression in wild meerkats. Transbound Emerg Dis 2022; 69:3274-3284. [PMID: 35947092 DOI: 10.1111/tbed.14679] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/03/2022] [Revised: 07/20/2022] [Accepted: 07/31/2022] [Indexed: 02/07/2023]
Abstract
Infections with tuberculosis (TB)-causing agents of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex threaten human, livestock and wildlife health globally due to the high capacity to cross trans-species boundaries. Tuberculosis is a cryptic disease characterized by prolonged, sometimes lifelong subclinical infections, complicating disease monitoring. Consequently, our understanding of infection risk, disease progression, and mortality across species affected by TB remains limited. The TB agent Mycobacterium suricattae was first recorded in the late 1990s in a wild population of meerkats inhabiting the Kalahari in South Africa and has since spread considerably, becoming a common cause of meerkat mortality. This offers an opportunity to document the epidemiology of naturally spreading TB in a wild population. Here, we synthesize more than 25 years' worth of TB reporting and social interaction data across 3420 individuals to track disease spread, and quantify rates of TB social exposure, progression, and mortality. We found that most meerkats had been exposed to the pathogen within eight years of first detection in the study area, with exposure reaching up to 95% of the population. Approximately one quarter of exposed individuals progressed to clinical TB stages, followed by physical deterioration and death within a few months. Since emergence, 11.6% of deaths were attributed to TB, although the true toll of TB-related mortality is likely higher. Lastly, we observed marked variation in disease progression among individuals, suggesting inter-individual differences in both TB susceptibility and resistance. Our results highlight that TB prevalence and mortality could be higher than previously reported, particularly in species or populations with complex social group dynamics. Long-term studies, such as the present one, allow us to assess temporal variation in disease prevalence and progression and quantify exposure, which is rarely measured in wildlife. Long-term studies are highly valuable tools to explore disease emergence and ecology and study host-pathogen co-evolutionary dynamics in general, and its impact on social mammals.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nadine Müller-Klein
- Conservation Genomics and EcoHealth, Institute for Evolutionary Ecology and Conservation Genomics, Ulm, Germany
| | - Alice Risely
- Conservation Genomics and EcoHealth, Institute for Evolutionary Ecology and Conservation Genomics, Ulm, Germany
| | - Dominik W Schmid
- Conservation Genomics and EcoHealth, Institute for Evolutionary Ecology and Conservation Genomics, Ulm, Germany
| | - Marta Manser
- Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.,Mammal Research Institute, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa.,Kalahari Research Trust, Kuruman River Reserve, Northern Cape, South Africa
| | - Tim Clutton-Brock
- Mammal Research Institute, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa.,Kalahari Research Trust, Kuruman River Reserve, Northern Cape, South Africa.,Large Animal Research Group, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
| | - Simone Sommer
- Conservation Genomics and EcoHealth, Institute for Evolutionary Ecology and Conservation Genomics, Ulm, Germany
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