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opencc-zeroMar 2024View details →

Invasibility of a North American soil ecosystem to amphibian-killing fungal pathogens

North American salamanders are threatened by the intercontinental spread of chytridiomycosis, a deadly disease caused by the fungal pathogen Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans (Bsal). To predict the potential dispersal of Bsal spores to salamander habitats, we evaluated the capacity of soil microbial communities to resist invasion. We determined the degree of habitat invasibility using soils from five locations throughout the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, a region with a high abundance of susceptible hosts. Our experimental design consisted of replicate soil microcosms exposed to different propagule pressures of the non-native pathogen, Bsal, and an introduced but endemic pathogen, B. dendrobatidis (Bd). To compare growth and competitive interactions, we used quantitative PCR, live/dead cell viability assays, and 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing. We found that soil microcosms with intact bacterial communities inhibited both Bsal and Bd growth, but inhibitory capacity diminished with increased propagule pressure. Bsal showed greater persistence than Bd. Linear discriminant analysis (LDA) identified the family Burkolderiaceae as increasing in relative abundance with the decline of both pathogens. Although our findings provide evidence of environmental filtering in soils, such barriers weakened in response to pathogen type and propagule pressure, showing that habitats vary their invasibility based on the properties of their local microbial communities.

opencc-by-4.0Dec 2021View details →

SBF-SEM datasets related to the manuscript "Trans-cellular tunnels induced by the fungal pathogen Candida albicans facilitate invasion through successive epithelial cells without host damage" by Lachat et al, 2022.

11 serial block face- scanning electron microscopy (SBF-SEM) datasets described in the manuscript "Trans-cellular tunnels induced by the fungal pathogen Candida albicans facilitate invasion through successive epithelial cells without host damage" by Lachat et al, 2022. Resolution: 10 nm x,y, 100 nm Z. Datasets description and quantification can be found in the Supplementary information.

opencc-by-4.0May 2022View details →

Potential distribution of invasive boxwood blight pathogen (Calonectria pseudonaviculata) as predicted by process-based and correlative models

R project, R scripts, and data files for reproducing most of the analyses presented in a climatic suitability study for boxwood blight. The README. md file describes how to run the scripts and provides details on data inputs. Abstract: Boxwood blight caused by Cps is an emerging disease that has had devastating impacts on Buxus spp. in the horticultural sector, landscapes, and native ecosystems. In this study, we produced a process-based climatic suitability model in the CLIMEX program and combined outputs of four different correlative modeling algorithms to generate an ensemble correlative model. All models were fit and validated using a presence record dataset comprised of Cps detections across its entire known invaded range. Evaluations of model performance provided validation of good model fit for all models. A consensus map of CLIMEX and ensemble correlative model predictions indicated that not-yet-invaded areas in eastern and southern Europe and in the southeastern, midwestern, and Pacific coast regions of North America are climatically suitable for Cps establishment. Most regions of the world where Buxus and its congeners are native are also at risk of establishment. These findings provide the first insights into Cps global invasion threat, suggesting that this invasive pathogen has the potential to significantly expand its range.

opencc-zeroSep 2022View details →

Can immune gene silencing via dsRNA feeding promote pathogenic viruses to control the globally invasive Argentine ant?

Pest control methods that can target pest species with limited environmental impacts are a conservation and economic priority. Species-specific pest control using RNA interference is a challenging but promising avenue in developing the next generation of pest management. We investigate the feasibility of manipulating a biological invader's immune system using double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) in order to increase susceptibility to naturally occurring pathogens. We used the invasive Argentine ant as a model, targeting the immunity-associated genes Spaetzle and Dicer-1 with dsRNA. We show that feeding of Spaetzle dsRNA can result in partial target gene silencing for up to 28 days in the laboratory and five days in the field. Dicer-1 dsRNA only resulted in partial gene knockdown after two days in the laboratory. Double-stranded RNA treatments were associated with significant gene expression disruptions across immune pathways in the laboratory and to a lower extent in the field. We observed occasional changes in viral loads in dsRNA-treated groups. However, immune pathways disruption did not result in consistent increase in microbial infections, nor did they alter ant abundance in the field. Our study explores the feasibility of lowering a pest's immunity as a control tool. We demonstate that it is possible to alter immune gene expression of pest species and pathogen loads, though in our system the affected pathogens did not appear to influence pest abundance. We provide advice on future directions for dsRNA-mediated immune disruption in pest species, including potential avenues to improve dsRNA delivery as well as the importance of the biology of the pest system and its pathogens.

opencc-by-4.0Dec 2017View details →

Fig. 2 in The things they carried: The pathogenic effects of old and new parasites following the intercontinental invasion of the Australian cane toad (Rhinella marina)

Fig. 2. Phenomena occurring in pathogen/parasite load during the introduction of exotic host species. All of these concepts are exemplified by the

opencc-by-4.0Dec 2017View details →

Fig. 1 in The things they carried: The pathogenic effects of old and new parasites following the intercontinental invasion of the Australian cane toad (Rhinella marina)

Fig. 1. Cane toad (Rhinella marina), a large bufonid anuran invasive to Australia. Photo taken by Dr. Matt Greenlees.

opencc-by-4.0Dec 2017View details →

Fig. 3 in The things they carried: The pathogenic effects of old and new parasites following the intercontinental invasion of the Australian cane toad (Rhinella marina)

Fig. 3. Known distribution of the cane toad throughout Australia. Since arriving in Queensland, Australia in 1935, cane toads have further expanded their range through New South Wales, the Northern Territory, and into Western Australia. Map created by Georgia Ward-Fear (Tingley et al., In review).

publicSep 2022View details →

Can immune gene silencing via dsRNA feeding promote pathogenic viruses to control the globally invasive Argentine ant?

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publicMar 2024View details →

Invasibility of a North American soil ecosystem to amphibian-killing fungal pathogens

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zenodo36/100

Non-invasive genomics of respiratory pathogens infecting wild great apes using hybridization capture

This dataset complements a manuscript reporting genomic analyses of respiratory pathogens cuasing lethal outbreaks in the wild chimpanzee community living in Tai National Park, Ivory Coast.

opencc-by-4.0Mar 2022View details →

publicSep 2025View details →

Data from: Increased nitrogen deposition may promote plant invasion through interfering plant-pathogen interactions

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publicFeb 2025View details →

Heavy metal pollution enhances pathogen resistance of an invasive plant species over its native congener

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publicFeb 2021View details →

Data from: Intraspecific and biogeographic variation in foliar fungal communities and pathogen damage of native and invasive Phragmites australis

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publicAug 2018View details →

Data from: Imperfect pathogen detection from non-invasive skin swabs biases disease inference

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zenodo32/100

The invasive pathogenic fungus of ash trees alters arthropod predator – prey food webs in forest plantations

The data set contains data on: 1] Prey type and size (sheet1: prey type and size). In the cells, prey length in mm is provided for each prey item. NA is stated for a prey item that could not be measured. In this sheet, the plot ids and the spider ids are also stated, which enables connection with other sheets. Note: more prey items caught by an individual are stated in one row if they are of different type. Prey items of a same type caught by an individual are itemized in more rows. 2] Information about spider individuals (sheet2: spiders). For each spider individual, it is provided its id, so it can be connected with sheet 1, plot id where it was collected, when it was collected (month), web type, and prosoma length (mm).  3] Characteristics of sampling plots (sheet3: environmental data). It is provided plot id, age, infestation degree by Hymenoscyphus fraxineus, canopy openness, shrub coverage, and herb coverage. 4] Potential prey of spiders (sheet 4: potential prey). Standardized no. of prey per trap (20 x 15 cm, both sides were sticky) in each plot.

opencc-by-4.0Aug 2020View details →

opencc-zeroSep 2020View details →

Invasive earthworms reduce chemical defense and increase herbivory and pathogen infection in native trees

<ol> <li>Recent research shows that earthworms can alter defense traits of plants against herbivores and pathogens by affecting soil biochemistry. Yet, the effects of invasive earthworms on defense traits of native plants from previously earthworm-free ecosystems as well as the consequences for multitrophic interactions are virtually unknown.</li> <li>Here we use a combination of an observational study and a complementary experimental study to investigate the effects of invasive earthworms on leaf defense traits, herbivore damage, and pathogen infection in two poplar tree species (Populus balsamifera and Populus tremuloides) native to North American boreal forests.</li> <li>Our observational study showed that earthworm invasion was associated with enhanced leaf herbivory in saplings of both tree species. However, we only detected significant shifts in the concentration of chemical defense compounds in response to earthworm invasion for P. balsamifera. Specifically, leaf phenolic concentrations, including salicinoids and catechin, were lower in P. balsamifera from earthworm-invaded sites.</li> <li>Our experimental study confirmed an earthworm-induced reduction in leaf defense levels in P. balsamifera for one of the defense compounds, tremulacin. The experimental study additionally showed that invasive earthworms reduced leaf dry matter content, potentially increasing leaf palatability, and enhanced susceptibility of trees to infection by a fungal pathogen, but not to aphids, in the same tree species.</li> <li> Synthesis. Our results show that invasive earthworms can decrease the concentrations of some chemical defense compounds in P. balsamifera, which could make them susceptible to leaf-chewing insects. Such potential impacts of invasive earthworms are likely to have implications for tree survival and competition, native tree biodiversity, and ecosystem functioning.</li> </ol>

opencc-zeroSep 2020View details →

Small scale variability in soil moisture drives infection of vulnerable juniper populations by invasive forest pathogen

The oomycete plant pathogen, Phytophthora austrocedri, is an aggressive killer of cypress trees causing severe mortality of Chilean cedar (Austrocedrus chilensis) in Argentina since the 1940s and now common juniper (Juniperus communis s.l.) in the UK. Rapid mortality of key UK juniper populations was first observed in the early 2000s; the causal agent of mortality was confirmed as P. austrocedri in 2012 and the pathogen has now been widely detected - but is not ubiquitous - in juniper populations across Scotland and England. Although juniper has a broad distribution across the northern hemisphere, the UK incidence of P. austrocedri remains the only confirmed infection of juniper populations globally. Juniper is an important species for biodiversity, so it is imperative to understand the abiotic and biotic drivers of emergent P. austrocedri infection to inform detection, containment and conservation strategies to manage juniper populations across the full extent of its range. As management of UK juniper populations is primarily conducted at a local level, we investigated field scale drivers of disease – in three, geographically separate populations with different infection histories. Variation in the proportion of juniper showing symptoms - discoloured or dead foliage – was measured using stratified sampling across along key environmental gradients within each 100-hectare population, including juniper density identified from aerial imagery. Potential predictors of infection included altitude, slope, distance to nearest watercourse, soil moisture (mean percentage volumetric water content), area of red deer browsing damage and area of commonly associated vascular plant species. We assessed support in the data for alternative models explaining the spatial distribution of P. austrocedri symptoms using full subset covariate selection and Deviance Information Criteria (DIC). Despite differences in environmental gradients and infection histories between populations, area of juniper symptomatic for P. austrocedri increased with waterlogging, increasing with soil moisture in sites where soils had higher peat or clay contents, and decreasing with proximity to watercourses where sites had shallower, sandier soils. These results are consistent with key drivers identified at both local and landscape scale in Chilean cedar. Our approach enables identification of site-specific disease management strategies including prioritisation of inspections in microsites with high soil moisture and promoting conservation measures such as creation of sites for natural regeneration in drier microsites to minimise pathogen spread and maximise the resilience of existing juniper populations.

opencc-zeroDec 2014View details →

Data from: Invasiveness of plant pathogens depends on the spatial scale of host distribution

Plant diseases often cause serious yield losses in agriculture. A pathogen's invasiveness can be quantified by the basic reproductive number, R0. Since pathogen transmission between host plants depends on the spatial separation between them, R0 is strongly influenced by the spatial scale of the host distribution.We present a proof of principle of a novel approach to estimate the basic reproductive number, R0, of plant pathogens as a function of the size of a field planted with crops and its aspect ratio. This general approach is based on a spatially explicit population dynamical model. The basic reproductive number was found to increase with the field size at small field sizes and to saturate to a constant value at large field sizes. It reaches a maximum in square fields and decreases as the field becomes elongated. This pattern appears to be quite general: it holds for dispersal kernels that decrease exponentially or faster, as well as for fat-tailed dispersal kernels that decrease slower than exponential (i.e., power-law kernels).We used this approach to estimate R0 in wheat stripe rust (an important disease caused by Puccinia striiformis), where we inferred both the transmission rates and the dispersal kernels from the measurements of disease gradients. For the two largest datasets, we estimated R0 of P. striiformis in the limit of large fields to be of the order of 30. We found that the spatial extent over which R0 changes strongly is quite fine-scaled (about 30 m of the linear extension of the field). Our results indicate that in order to optimize the spatial scale of deployment of fungicides or host resistances, the adjustments should be made at a fine spatial scale. We also demonstrated how the knowledge of the spatial dependence of R0 can improve recommendations with regard to fungicide treatment.