Associations between Afrotropical bats, parasites, and microbial symbionts

Abstract

Bats are among the most diverse animals on the planet and harbor numerous bacterial, viral, and eukaryotic symbionts. The interplay between bacterial community composition and parasitism in bats is not well understood and may have important implications for studies of similar systems. Here we present a comprehensive survey of dipteran and haemosporidian parasites, and characterize the gut, oral, and skin microbiota of Afrotropical bats. We identify significant correlations between bacterial community composition of the skin and dipteran ectoparasite prevalence across four major bat lineages, as well as links between the oral microbiome and malarial parasitism, suggesting a potential mechanism for host selection and vector-borne disease transmission in bats. In contrast to recent studies of host-microbe phylosymbiosis in mammals, we find no correlation between chiropteran phylogenetic distances and bacterial community dissimilarity across the three anatomical sites, suggesting that host environment is more important than shared ancestry in shaping the composition of bat-associated bacterial communities.\n\nSIGNIFICANCEAnimals rely on bacterial symbionts for numerous biological functions, such as digestion and immune system development. Increasing evidence suggests that host-associated microbes may play a role in mediating parasite burden. This study is the first to provide a comprehensive survey of bacterial symbionts from multiple anatomical sites across a broad taxonomic range of Afrotropical bats, demonstrating significant associations between the bat microbiome and parasite prevalence. This study provides a framework for future approaches to systems biology of host-symbiont interactions across broad taxonomic scales, emphasizing the interdependence between microbial symbionts and vertebrate health in the study of wild organisms and their natural history.