White-nose Syndrome
White-nose syndrome (WNS) , caused by a cold loving fungus, Psuedogymnoascus destructans, invades wing membranes of hibernating bats and causes early arousal from torpor, dehydration, and eventually death.
Outside of my MS thesis research, I worked on white-nose syndrome projects for my lab at the University of Missouri.
I manually calculated the total damaged surface area on WNS-affected wings from hundreds of photos . This led to the creation of R package countcolors, a useful tool for biologists to quickly quantify WNS damage. |
This is an extreme case of WNS in a little brown bat (Myotis lucifugus). The white coloration in her wing membrane and fur (and fur loss) are a result of WNS. The disease also prevented her maintaining and gaining weight.
She was one of many WNS-affected bats at the University of Missouri's rehabilitation center that needed special care and monitoring. For these patients, I treated their wings with a variety of topical medications, administered frequent subcutaneous fluids to combat dehydration, and hand fed them as needed. |
In the lab, I isolated and sequenced DNA from wing membrane swabs. Here, we were identifying other fungus or yeast species that live on the wing membranes of bats that were either WNS affect or not. By comparing these results, we hoped to determine which fungus (or yeast) species were potentially outcompeting WNS.
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