Emerging tuberculosis pathogen hijacks social communication behavior in the group-living banded mongoose (Mungos mungo)

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dc.contributor.author Alexander, Kathleen A.
dc.contributor.author Sanderson, Claire E.
dc.contributor.author Larsen, Michelle H.
dc.contributor.author Robbe-Austerman, Suelee
dc.contributor.author Williams, Mark C.
dc.contributor.author Palmer, Mitchell V.
dc.date.accessioned 2016-10-27T04:56:27Z
dc.date.available 2016-10-27T04:56:27Z
dc.date.issued 2016-05-10
dc.description Data Set S1, XLSX file, 0.1 MB. en_ZA
dc.description Data Set S2, XLSX file, 0.1 MB. en_ZA
dc.description.abstract An emerging Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTC) pathogen, M. mungi, infects wild banded mongooses (Mungos mungo) in Northern Botswana, causing significant mortality. This MTC pathogen did not appear to be transmitted through a primary aerosol or oral route. We utilized histopathology, spoligotyping, mycobacterial interspersed repetitive unitsvariable number of tandem repeats (MIRU-VNTR), quantitative PCR (qPCR), and molecular markers (regions of difference [RDs] from various MTC members, including region of difference 1 [RD1] from M. bovis BCG [RD1BCG], M. microti [RD1mic], and M. pinnipedii [RD1seal], genes Rv1510 [RD4], Rv1970 [RD7], Rv3877/8 [RD1], and Rv3120 [RD12], insertion element IS1561, the 16S RNA gene, and gene Rv0577 [cfp32]), including the newly characterized mongoose-specific deletion in RD1 (RD1mon), in order to demonstrate the presence of M. mungi DNA in infected mongooses and investigate pathogen invasion and exposure mechanisms. M. mungi DNA was identified in 29% of nasal planum samples (n 52), 56% of nasal rinses and swabs (n 9), 53% of oral swabs (n 19), 22% of urine samples (n 23), 33% of anal gland tissue (n 18), and 39% of anal gland secretions (n 44). The occurrence of extremely low cycle threshold values obtained with qPCR in anal gland and nasal planum samples indicates that high levels of M. mungi can be found in these tissue types. Histological data were consistent with these results, suggesting that pathogen invasion occurs through breaks in the nasal planum and/or skin of the mongoose host, which are in frequent contact with anal gland secretions and urine during olfactory communication behavior. Lesions in the lung, when present, occurred only with disseminated disease. No environmental sources of M. mungi DNA could be found. We report primary environmental transmission of an MTC pathogen that occurs in association with social communication behavior. en_ZA
dc.description.department Veterinary Tropical Diseases en_ZA
dc.description.librarian am2016 en_ZA
dc.description.sponsorship This work was supported in part by Morris Animal Foundation grant number D14ZO-083 and by National Science Foundation grant number 1518663 as part of the joint NSF-NIH-USDA Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Diseases program. K. A. Alexander was also supported in part through the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health under award number U01GM110748. en_ZA
dc.description.uri http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/issn/2150-7511/ en_ZA
dc.identifier.citation Alexander KA, Sanderson CE, Larsen MH, Robbe-Austerman S, Williams MC, Palmer MV. 2016. Emerging tuberculosis pathogen hijacks social communication behavior in the group-living banded mongoose (Mungos mungo). mBio 7(3):e00281-16. DOI:10.1128/mBio.00281-16. en_ZA
dc.identifier.issn 2150-7511
dc.identifier.other 10.1128/mBio.00281-16
dc.identifier.other 10.1128/mBio.00281-16/-/DCSupplemental
dc.identifier.uri http://hdl.handle.net/2263/57469
dc.language.iso en en_ZA
dc.publisher American Society for Microbiology en_ZA
dc.rights © 2016 Alexander et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. en_ZA
dc.subject DNA en_ZA
dc.subject Lesions en_ZA
dc.subject MTC pathogen en_ZA
dc.subject Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTC) en_ZA
dc.subject Mongoose (Mungos mungo) en_ZA
dc.title Emerging tuberculosis pathogen hijacks social communication behavior in the group-living banded mongoose (Mungos mungo) en_ZA
dc.type Article en_ZA


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