Transcriptional host-pathogen responses of and three species of bats with white-nose syndrome.

Understanding how context (e.g., host species, environmental conditions) drives disease susceptibility is an essential goal of disease ecology.

White-nose syndrome is associated with increased replication of a naturally persisting coronaviruses in bats.

Spillover of viruses from bats to other animals may be associated with increased contact between them, as well as increased shedding of viruses by bats. Here, we tested the prediction that little brown bats (Myotis lucifugus) co-infected with the M. lucifugus coronavirus (Myl-CoV) and with Pseudogymnoascus destructans (Pd), the fungus that causes bat white-nose syndrome (WNS), exhibit different disease severity, viral shedding and molecular responses than bats infected with only Myl-CoV or only P.