부산대학교 도서관

White nose syndrome (WNS) is caused by the psychrophilic fungusPseudogymnoascus destructansthat can grow in the environment saprotrophically or parasitically by infecting hibernating bats. Infections are pathological in many species of North American bats, disrupting hibernation and causing mortality. To determine what fungal pathways are involved in infection of living tissue, we examined fungal gene expression using RNA-Seq. We comparedP. destructansgene expression when grown in culture to that during infection of a North American bat species,Myotis lucifugus, that shows high WNS mortality. CulturedP. destructanswas grown at 10 to 14 C andP. destructansgrowingin vivowas presumably exposed to temperatures ranging from 4 to 8 C during torpor and up to 37 C during periodic arousals. We found that whenP. destructansis causing WNS, the most significant differentially expressed genes were involved in heat shock responses, cell wall remodeling, and micronutrient acquisition. These results indicate that this fungal pathogen responds to host-pathogen interactions by regulating gene expression in ways that may contribute to evasion of host responses. Alterations in fungal cell wall structures could allowP. destructansto avoid detection by host pattern recognition receptors and antibody responses. This study has also identified several fungal pathways upregulated during WNS infection that may be candidates for mitigating infection pathology. By identifying host-specific pathogen responses, these observations have important implications for host-pathogen evolutionary relationships in WNS and other fungal diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]