title: Malagasy bats shelter a considerable genetic diversity of pathogenic Leptospira suggesting notable host-specificity patterns.
abstract: Pathogenic Leptospira are the causative agents of leptospirosis, a disease of global concern with major impact in tropical regions. Despite the importance of this zoonosis for human health, the evolutionary and ecological drivers shaping bacterial communities in host reservoirs remain poorly investigated. Here, we describe Leptospira communities hosted by Malagasy bats, composed of mostly endemic species, in order to characterize host-pathogen associations and investigate their evolutionary histories. We screened 947 individual bats (representing 31 species, 18 genera and seven families) for Leptospira infection and subsequently genotyped positive samples using three different bacterial loci. Molecular identification showed that these Leptospira are notably diverse and include several distinct lineages mostly belonging to Leptospira borgpetersenii and L. kirschneri. The exploration of the most probable host-pathogen evolutionary scenarios suggests that bacterial genetic diversity results from a combination of events related to the ecology and the evolutionary history of their hosts. Importantly, based on the data set presented herein, the notable host-specificity we have uncovered, together with a lack of geographical structuration of bacterial genetic diversity, indicates that the Leptospira community at a given site depends on the co-occurring bat species assemblage. The implications of such tight host-specificity on the epidemiology of leptospirosis are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Research and Surveillance of Emerging Diseases in the Indian Ocean (CRVOI), 97490 Sainte Clotilde, La Réunion, France UMR PIMIT, 'Infectious Processes in Insular Ecosystems', University of La Réunion, INSERM U 1187, CNRS 9192, IRD 249. Research platform of CYROI, 97490 Sainte Clotilde, La Réunion, France.
authors.forename: Yann
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Gomard
authors.affiliation: Centre for Research and Surveillance of Emerging Diseases in the Indian Ocean (CRVOI), 97490 Sainte Clotilde, La Réunion, France Department of Microbiology and Plant Pathology, Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, University of Pretoria, Pretoria 0002, South Africa.
authors.forename: Muriel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dietrich
authors.affiliation: Parallel Computing and Complex Systems Group, Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science, University of Leipzig, Augustusplatz 10, D-04109 Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: Nicolas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Wieseke
authors.affiliation: Centre for Research and Surveillance of Emerging Diseases in the Indian Ocean (CRVOI), 97490 Sainte Clotilde, La Réunion, France UMR PIMIT, 'Infectious Processes in Insular Ecosystems', University of La Réunion, INSERM U 1187, CNRS 9192, IRD 249. Research platform of CYROI, 97490 Sainte Clotilde, La Réunion, France Association Vahatra, BP 3972, Antananarivo 101, Madagascar.
authors.forename: Beza
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Ramasindrazana
authors.affiliation: Centre for Research and Surveillance of Emerging Diseases in the Indian Ocean (CRVOI), 97490 Sainte Clotilde, La Réunion, France UMR PIMIT, 'Infectious Processes in Insular Ecosystems', University of La Réunion, INSERM U 1187, CNRS 9192, IRD 249. Research platform of CYROI, 97490 Sainte Clotilde, La Réunion, France.
authors.forename: Erwan
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Lagadec
authors.affiliation: Association Vahatra, BP 3972, Antananarivo 101, Madagascar Field Museum of Natural History, 1400 South Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, IL 60605-2496, USA.
authors.forename: Steven M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Goodman
authors.affiliation: Centre for Research and Surveillance of Emerging Diseases in the Indian Ocean (CRVOI), 97490 Sainte Clotilde, La Réunion, France UMR PIMIT, 'Infectious Processes in Insular Ecosystems', University of La Réunion, INSERM U 1187, CNRS 9192, IRD 249. Research platform of CYROI, 97490 Sainte Clotilde, La Réunion, France Institute for Research for Development (IRD), 97490 Sainte Clotilde, La Réunion, France.
authors.forename: Koussay
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Dellagi
authors.affiliation: Centre for Research and Surveillance of Emerging Diseases in the Indian Ocean (CRVOI), 97490 Sainte Clotilde, La Réunion, France UMR PIMIT, 'Infectious Processes in Insular Ecosystems', University of La Réunion, INSERM U 1187, CNRS 9192, IRD 249. Research platform of CYROI, 97490 Sainte Clotilde, La Réunion, France pablo.tortosa@univ-reunion.fr.
authors.forename: Pablo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Tortosa
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D002685:Chiroptera / Q000382:microbiology*; D014644:Genetic Variation / Q000235:genetics*; D005838:Genotype; D058507:Host Specificity; D054884:Host-Pathogen Interactions / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007919:Leptospira / Q000235:genetics* / Q000472:pathogenicity; D007922:Leptospirosis / Q000382:microbiology; D008270:Madagascar; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny
keywords: Chiroptera; Leptospira; Madagascar; co-phylogeny; host-parasite association; host-specificity