Imperial College London
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Professor Matthew Fisher

Faculty of Medicine, School of Public Health

Professor of Fungal Disease Epidemiology
 
 
 
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Contact

 

matthew.fisher Website

 
 
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Location

 

1113Sir Michael Uren HubWhite City Campus

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Summary

 

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@article{Farthing:2021:10.3389/fmicb.2020.592286,
author = {Farthing, HN and Jiang, J and Henwood, AJ and Fenton, A and Garner, TWJ and Daversa, DR and Fisher, MC and Montagnes, DJS},
doi = {10.3389/fmicb.2020.592286},
journal = {Frontiers in Microbiology},
title = {Microbial grazers may aid in controlling infections caused by the aquatic zoosporic fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2020.592286},
volume = {11},
year = {2021}
}
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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Free-living eukaryotic microbes may reduce animal diseases. We evaluated the dynamics by which micrograzers (primarily protozoa) apply top-down control on the chytrid Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) a devastating, panzootic pathogen of amphibians. Although micrograzers consumed zoospores (∼3 μm), the dispersal stage of chytrids, not all species grew monoxenically on zoospores. However, the ubiquitous ciliate Tetrahymena pyriformis, which likely co-occurs with Bd, grew at near its maximum rate (r = 1.7 d-1). A functional response (ingestion vs. prey abundance) for T. pyriformis, measured using spore-surrogates (microspheres) revealed maximum ingestion (I                        max                     ) of 1.63 × 103 zoospores d-1, with a half saturation constant (k) of 5.75 × 103 zoospores ml-1. Using these growth and grazing data we developed and assessed a population model that incorporated chytrid-host and micrograzer dynamics. Simulations using our data and realistic parameters obtained from the literature suggested that micrograzers could control Bd and potentially prevent chytridiomycosis (defined as 104 sporangia host-1). However, simulated inferior micrograzers (0.7 × I                        max                     and 1.5 × k) did not prevent chytridiomycosis, although they ultimately reduced pathogen abundance to below levels resulting in disease. These findings indicate how micrograzer responses can be applied when modeling disease dynamics for Bd and other zoosporic fungi.
AU  - Farthing,HN
AU  - Jiang,J
AU  - Henwood,AJ
AU  - Fenton,A
AU  - Garner,TWJ
AU  - Daversa,DR
AU  - Fisher,MC
AU  - Montagnes,DJS
DO  - 10.3389/fmicb.2020.592286
PY  - 2021///
SN  - 1664-302X
TI  - Microbial grazers may aid in controlling infections caused by the aquatic zoosporic fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis
T2  - Frontiers in Microbiology
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2020.592286
UR  - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33552011
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/86316
VL  - 11
ER  -
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