Ramírez-Fernández Lia, Saldarriaga-Córdoba Mónica, Silva Andrea X, Napolitano Constanza, Rodríguez-San Pedro Annia
Laboratorio de Genómica de Ambientes Extremos, Facultad de Recursos Naturales Renovables, Universidad Arturo Prat, Iquique, Chile.
Núcleo de Investigación Aplicada e Innovación en Ciencias Biológicas, Facultad de Recursos Naturales Renovables, Universidad Aturo Prat, Iquique, Chile.
PeerJ. 2025 Jun 30;13:e19563. doi: 10.7717/peerj.19563. eCollection 2025.
Human-driven environmental changes can disrupt wildlife habitats, forcing animals to adapt to fragmented or degraded ecosystems. In some cases, this leads to increased proximity between wildlife and human populations, heightening the risk of pathogen spillover. Bats, as key ecological players, are particularly sensitive to such disturbances. While some species decline in heavily altered environments, others adapt and thrive near human settlements, increasing the likelihood of encounters. Given that bats can host a wide range of zoonotic pathogens, this adaptive behavior raises important public health concerns. Despite their ecological significance and their role in zoonotic disease dynamics, the gut eukaryotes communities associated with bats remain less studied.
This study focused on the Valparaíso Myotis (), an insectivorous bat species endemic to central Chile that is significantly impacted by anthropogenic deforestation and habitat fragmentation. We characterized the gut eukaryotic communities of through fecal sample analysis. Targeted microbial groups included fungi, metazoan parasites, and protists. High-throughput sequencing was employed to assess gut eukaryotes diversity, and beta diversity analysis was conducted to explore clustering patterns in relation to environmental variables, such as vegetation cover and land use types.
Our analyses revealed that the gut eukaryotic community of consistently included taxa from the Apicomplexa, Ascomycota, and Basidiomycota phyla, with Apicomplexa being the most abundant. Beta diversity analysis showed distinct clustering by sampling location, with the percentage of native vegetation identified as the primary factor shaping gut eukaryotic community structure. Other influential variables included the presence of annual crops, orchards, water bodies, and urban areas. Notably, a high abundance of Apicomplexa-particularly amplicon sequence variants (ASVs) related to the genus -was detected in bat feces across sites with varying degrees of anthropogenic disturbance.
This study highlights the significant role of native vegetation in shaping the eukaryotic gut community of , suggesting that gut eukaryotic composition can serve as a bioindicator of bat health and habitat quality. Among the dominant taxa, members of the genus were frequently detected across sites with varying degrees of anthropogenic disturbance. Although is generally considered host-specific and not zoonotic, its high prevalence in bat gut communities points to the need for further research into its ecological role and potential implications for wildlife health. Overall, these findings underscore the importance of conserving native habitats to maintain ecosystem integrity and support healthy bat populations.
人类驱动的环境变化会破坏野生动物栖息地，迫使动物适应碎片化或退化的生态系统。在某些情况下，这会导致野生动物与人类种群的接触增加，从而增加病原体溢出的风险。蝙蝠作为关键的生态角色，对这类干扰尤为敏感。虽然一些物种在高度改变的环境中数量减少，但其他物种则适应并在人类住区附近繁衍生息，增加了相遇的可能性。鉴于蝙蝠可携带多种人畜共患病原体，这种适应性行为引发了重要的公共卫生问题。尽管蝙蝠具有生态重要性及其在人畜共患病动态中的作用，但与蝙蝠相关的肠道真核生物群落仍较少受到研究。
本研究聚焦于瓦尔帕莱索鼠耳蝠（），这是一种智利中部特有的食虫蝙蝠物种，受到人为森林砍伐和栖息地破碎化的显著影响。我们通过粪便样本分析对其肠道真核生物群落进行了特征描述。目标微生物类群包括真菌、后生动物寄生虫和原生生物。采用高通量测序评估肠道真核生物多样性，并进行β多样性分析以探索与植被覆盖和土地利用类型等环境变量相关的聚类模式。
我们的分析表明，瓦尔帕莱索鼠耳蝠的肠道真核生物群落始终包括顶复门、子囊菌门和担子菌门的分类群，其中顶复门最为丰富。β多样性分析显示，样本采集地点呈现出明显的聚类，原生植被百分比被确定为塑造肠道真核生物群落结构的主要因素。其他有影响的变量包括一年生作物、果园、水体和城市区域的存在。值得注意的是，在不同程度人为干扰的地点采集的蝙蝠粪便中均检测到高丰度的顶复门——特别是与属相关的扩增子序列变体（ASV）。
本研究强调了原生植被在塑造瓦尔帕莱索鼠耳蝠真核生物肠道群落中的重要作用，表明肠道真核生物组成可作为蝙蝠健康和栖息地质量的生物指标。在优势分类群中，属的成员在不同程度人为干扰的地点均频繁被检测到。虽然通常被认为具有宿主特异性且不是人畜共患病原体，但其在蝙蝠肠道群落中的高流行率表明需要进一步研究其生态作用以及对野生动物健康的潜在影响。总体而言，这些发现强调了保护原生栖息地以维持生态系统完整性和支持健康蝙蝠种群的重要性。
