First Detection of Toxoplasma gondii DNA in a Wild Bat from Colombia.

INTRODUCTION: Toxoplasma gondii infections have been reported for many warm-blooded animals around the world including chiropterans. However, in Colombia, the country that holds the highest taxonomic richness of this order of mammals in the Neotropics, up to date there are no reports of T. gondii in bats (Carollia brevicauda). PURPOSE: The objective of the present study was to detect T. gondii DNA from internal bat organs from Quindío, Colombia. RESULTS: We report the first detection of T. gondii DNA from internal bat organs in the department of Quindio, Central Andes of Colombia. Out of three silky short tail bat (Carollia brevicauda) specimens collected at the natural reserve "La Montaña del Ocaso", organs were recovered (lungs, liver, heart, kidneys, small and large intestine) and tested for T. gondii through PCR for B1 sequence, with 1/3 (33.3%) positive result for the presence of T. gondii DNA in bat kidney tissues. CONCLUSION: Taking into consideration the high diversity of bat species in Colombia, and the complexity of the ecological and functional relationships that these organisms establish in the ecosystems they inhabit, we discuss on the urgent need for more detailed research and surveys for Toxoplansma in bats and other mammalian wild species.

Biogeography and taxonomic status of Myotis keaysi pilosatibialis LaVal 1973 (Chiroptera: Vespertilionidae) .

We document the first confirmed Colombian records of Myotis keaysi pilosatibialis LaVal, 1973 from various localities on the Colombian Caribbean and the Eastern Cordillera of the Colombian Andes. These records confirm geographic overlap between M. k. pilosatibialis and the nominate subspecies M. k. keaysi J. A. Allen, 1914, in northeastern Colombia, questioning the subspecific status of M. k. pilosatibialis. Models of potential distribution, produced for the two taxa by the application of the Maxent algorithm, show a potential geographic overlap in the northeastern portion of the Andes of Colombia and Venezuela. In order to clarify the taxonomic status of putative M. keaysi variants, we analyzed the variation of Colombian representatives of M. keaysi through a Principal Components Analysis (PCA), and a Discriminant Function Analysis (DFA) performed on 18 cranio-dental measurements, as well as the analysis of discrete characters. The morphological independence between M. k. keaysi and M. k. pilosatibialis was supported statistically in our PCA and DFA, as well as by the presence of unique discrete characters, lending support to the recognition of M. k. pilosatibialis as full species. Herein, we include new discrete characters setting apart M. pilosatibialis from the morphologically similar species M. keaysi. 

Contrasting evolutionary dynamics of the developmental regulator PAX9, among bats, with evidence for a novel post-transcriptional regulatory mechanism.

Morphological evolution can be the result of natural selection favoring modification of developmental signaling pathways. However, little is known about the genetic basis of such phenotypic diversity. Understanding these mechanisms is difficult for numerous reasons, yet studies in model organisms often provide clues about the major developmental pathways involved. The paired-domain gene, PAX9, is known to be a key regulator of development, particularly of the face and teeth. In this study, using a comparative genetics approach, we investigate PAX9 molecular evolution among mammals, focusing on craniofacially diversified (Phyllostomidae) and conserved (Vespertilionidae) bat families, and extend our comparison to other orders of mammal. Open-reading frame analysis disclosed signatures of selection, in which a small percentage of residues vary, and lineages acquire different combinations of variation through recurrent substitution and lineage specific changes. A few instances of convergence for specific residues were observed between morphologically convergent bat lineages. Bioinformatic analysis for unknown PAX9 regulatory motifs indicated a novel post-transcriptional regulatory mechanism involving a Musashi protein. This regulation was assessed through fluorescent reporter assays and gene knockdowns. Results are compatible with the hypothesis that the number of Musashi binding-elements in PAX9 mRNA proportionally regulates protein translation rate. Although a connection between morphology and binding element frequency was not apparent, results indicate this regulation would vary among craniofacially divergent bat species, but be static among conserved species. Under this model, Musashi's regulatory control of alternative human PAX9 isoforms would also vary. The presence of Musashi-binding elements within PAX9 of all mammals examined, chicken, zebrafish, and the fly homolog of PAX9, indicates this regulatory mechanism is ancient, originating basal to much of the animal phylogeny.