Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Jan;1(1):e23.
doi: 10.1002/cpz1.23.

Laboratory Maintenance and Culture of Pseudogymnoascus destructans, the Fungus That Causes Bat White-Nose Syndrome

Affiliations

Laboratory Maintenance and Culture of Pseudogymnoascus destructans, the Fungus That Causes Bat White-Nose Syndrome

David S Blehert et al. Curr Protoc. 2021 Jan.

Erratum in

Abstract

Pseudogymnoascus destructans is a fungal pathogen that causes white-nose syndrome, an emerging and fatal disease of North American bats that has led to unprecedented population declines. As a psychrophile, P. destructans is adapted to infect bats during winter hibernation, when host metabolic activity and core body temperature are greatly reduced. The ability to maintain and cultivate isolates of P. destructans in the laboratory is necessary for conducting research with this fungus. This article describes protocols for culturing P. destructans from bat wing skin and soil, for cryopreserving the fungus, and for preparing liquid suspensions for laboratory experimentation. © 2021 Wiley Periodicals LLC. Basic Protocol 1: Isolating Pseudogymnoascus destructans from bat wing skin Basic Protocol 2: Isolating Pseudogymnoascus destructans from soil Basic Protocol 3: Cryopreservation of Pseudogymnoascus destructans Basic Protocol 4: Preparing liquid conidial suspension of Pseudogymnoascus destructans.

Keywords: bat; fungal pathogen; white-nose syndrome; wildlife disease.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

Literature Cited

    1. Blehert, D. S., Hicks, A. C., Behr, M., Meteyer, C. U., Berlowski-Zier, B. M., Buckles, E. L., … Stone, W. B. (2009). Bat white-nose syndrome: An emerging fungal pathogen? Science, 323, 227. doi: 10.1126/science.1163874.
    1. Drees, K. P., Lorch, J. M., Puechmaille, S. J., Parise, K. L., Wibbelt, G., Hoyt, J. R., … Foster, J. T. (2017). Phylogenetics of a fungal invasion: Origins and widespread dispersal of white-nose syndrome. mBio, 8, e01941-17. doi: 10.1128/mBio.01941-17.
    1. Gargas, A., Trest, M. T., Christensen, M., Volk, T. J., & Blehert, D. S. (2009). Geomyces destructans sp. nov. associated with bat white-nose syndrome. Mycotaxon, 108, 147-154. doi: 10.5248/108.147.
    1. Keller, S., Lorch, J. M., Berlowski-Zier, B. M., Ballman, A. E., & Blehert, D. S. Analysis of archival specimens confirms white-nose syndrome in little brown bats (Myotis lucifugus) from New York, USA in 2007. Journal of Wildlife Diseases, In press.
    1. Lindner, D. L., Gargas, A., Lorch, J. M., Banik, M. T., Glaeser, J., Kunz, T. H., & Blehert, D. S. (2011). DNA-based detection of the fungal pathogen Geomyces destructans in soils from bat hibernacula. Mycologia, 103, 241-246. doi: 10.3852/10-262.

Supplementary concepts

LinkOut - more resources