Activity of bacteria isolated from bats against Pseudogymnoascus destructans in China

Abstract

Summary White‐nose syndrome, a disease that is caused by the psychrophilic fungus Pseudogymnoascus destructans, has threatened several North America bat species with extinction. Recent studies have shown that East Asian bats are infected with P. destructans but show greatly reduced infections. While several factors have been found to contribute to these reduced infections, the role of specific microbes in limiting P. destructans growth remains unexplored. We isolated three bacterial strains with the ability to inhibit P. destructans, namely, Pseudomonas yamanorum GZD14026, Pseudomonas brenneri XRD11711 and Pseudomonas fragi GZD14479, from bats in China. Pseudomonas yamanorum, with the highest inhibition score, was selected to extract antifungal active substance. Combining mass spectrometry (MS) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy analyses, we identified the active compound inhibiting P. destructans as phenazine‐1‐carboxylic acid (PCA), and the minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) was 50.12 μg ml−1. Whole genome sequencing also revealed the existence of PCA biosynthesis gene clusters. Gas chromatography‐mass spectrometry (GC‐MS) analysis identified volatile organic compounds. The results indicated that 10 ppm octanoic acid, 100 ppm 3‐tert‐butyl‐4‐hydroxyanisole (isoprenol) and 100 ppm 3‐methyl‐3‐buten‐1‐ol (BHA) inhibited the growth of P. destructans. These results support that bacteria may play a role in limiting the growth of P. destructans on bats.