Fighting fungi with fungi

Bacteria and fungi found on bat wings could potentially help save them from white-nose syndrome. White-nose syndrome has devastated bat populations across North America. Researchers recently studied bats in Lillooet, British Columbia, where there is a biodiverse bat population but no signs of white-nose syndrome. “If there is a new frontier for preserving bat species, it will likely be found in western North America, yet we know very little about the wing microbiome of these bats,” said Jianping Xu, a professor in the Department of Biology at McMaster University in Ontario. Xu led a study in Microbiology Spectrum, where she and her colleagues captured and tested 76 bats. They identified thousands of bacteria and fungi on their wings. Over a dozen of those strains appeared to fight off the fungus responsible for white-nose syndrome. Some strains were even more effective at fighting the fungus when they were combined. The research team has administered these types of cocktails to roosts in British Columbia and Washington state in the past with promising results. “This kind of information will allow us to refine potentially region-specific probiotic cocktails and manipulate the microbiome to help the survival of bats,” Xu said.

Read the study in Microbiology Spectrum.