Ancestral African Bats Brought Their Cargo of Pathogenic Leptospira to Madagascar under Cover of Colonization Events.

ABSTRACT: Madagascar is home to an extraordinary diversity of endemic mammals hosting several zoonotic pathogens. Although the African origin of Malagasy mammals has been addressed for a number of volant and terrestrial taxa, the origin of their hosted zoonotic pathogens is currently unknown. Using bats and Leptospira infections as a model system, we tested whether Malagasy mammal hosts acquired these infections on the island following colonization events, or alternatively brought these bacteria from continental Africa. We first described the genetic diversity of pathogenic Leptospira infecting bats from Mozambique and then tested through analyses of molecular variance (AMOVA) whether the genetic diversity of Leptospira hosted by bats from Mozambique, Madagascar and Comoros is s

SUBMITTER: Cordonin C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10385254 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature