Beyond White-Nose Syndrome: Mitochondrial and Functional Genomics of Pseudogymnoascus destructans

Popov, Ilia V.; Todorov, Svetoslav D.; Chikindas, Michael L.; Venema, Koen; Ermakov, Alexey M.; Popov, Igor V.

doi:10.3390/jof11080550

Open AccessArticle

Beyond White-Nose Syndrome: Mitochondrial and Functional Genomics of Pseudogymnoascus destructans

by

Ilia V. Popov

^1,*

,

Svetoslav D. Todorov

^2,3

,

Michael L. Chikindas

^4,5

,

Koen Venema

⁶,

Alexey M. Ermakov

¹

and

Igor V. Popov

^1,7

¹

Faculty “Bioengineering and Veterinary Medicine”, Don State Technical University, 344000 Rostov-on-Don, Russia

²

ProBacLab, Laboratório de Microbiologia de Alimentos, Departamento de Alimentos e Nutrição Experimental, Food Research Center, Faculdade de Ciências Farmacêuticas, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo 05508-000, SP, Brazil

³

CISAS-Center for Research and Development in Agrifood Systems and Sustainability, Instituto Politécnico de Viana do Castelo, 4900-347 Viana do Castelo, Portugal

⁴

Health Promoting Naturals Laboratory, School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ 08901, USA

⁵

Department of General Hygiene, I.M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University, 119435 Moscow, Russia

⁶

Beneficial Microbes^® Consultancy, 6709 TN Wageningen, The Netherlands

⁷

Division of Immunobiology and Biomedicine, Center of Genetics and Life Sciences, Sirius University of Science and Technology, 354340 Federal Territory Sirius, Russia

^*

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

J. Fungi 2025, 11(8), 550; https://doi.org/10.3390/jof11080550

Submission received: 8 June 2025 / Revised: 6 July 2025 / Accepted: 21 July 2025 / Published: 24 July 2025

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Diversity, Taxonomy and Ecology of Ascomycota, 2nd Edition)

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Abstract

White-Nose Syndrome (WNS) has devastated insectivorous bat populations, particularly in North America, leading to severe ecological and economic consequences. Despite extensive research, many aspects of the evolutionary history, mitochondrial genome organization, and metabolic adaptations of its etiological agent, Pseudogymnoascus destructans, remain unexplored. Here, we present a multi-scale genomic analysis integrating pangenome reconstruction, phylogenetic inference, Bayesian divergence dating, comparative mitochondrial genomics, and refined functional annotation. Our divergence dating analysis reveals that P. destructans separated from its Antarctic relatives approximately 141 million years ago, before adapting to bat hibernacula in the Northern Hemisphere. Additionally, our refined functional annotation significantly expands the known functional landscape of P. destructans, revealing an extensive repertoire of previously uncharacterized proteins involved in carbohydrate metabolism and secondary metabolite biosynthesis—key processes that likely contribute to its pathogenic success. By providing new insights into the genomic basis of P. destructans adaptation and pathogenicity, our study refines the evolutionary framework of this fungal pathogen and creates the foundation for future research on WNS mitigation strategies.

Keywords: white-nose syndrome; molecular evolution; evolutionary genomics; fungal evolution; phylogenetic comparative methods; phylogenomics

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MDPI and ACS Style

Popov, I.V.; Todorov, S.D.; Chikindas, M.L.; Venema, K.; Ermakov, A.M.; Popov, I.V. Beyond White-Nose Syndrome: Mitochondrial and Functional Genomics of Pseudogymnoascus destructans. J. Fungi 2025, 11, 550. https://doi.org/10.3390/jof11080550

AMA Style

Popov IV, Todorov SD, Chikindas ML, Venema K, Ermakov AM, Popov IV. Beyond White-Nose Syndrome: Mitochondrial and Functional Genomics of Pseudogymnoascus destructans. Journal of Fungi. 2025; 11(8):550. https://doi.org/10.3390/jof11080550

Chicago/Turabian Style

Popov, Ilia V., Svetoslav D. Todorov, Michael L. Chikindas, Koen Venema, Alexey M. Ermakov, and Igor V. Popov. 2025. "Beyond White-Nose Syndrome: Mitochondrial and Functional Genomics of Pseudogymnoascus destructans" Journal of Fungi 11, no. 8: 550. https://doi.org/10.3390/jof11080550

APA Style

Popov, I. V., Todorov, S. D., Chikindas, M. L., Venema, K., Ermakov, A. M., & Popov, I. V. (2025). Beyond White-Nose Syndrome: Mitochondrial and Functional Genomics of Pseudogymnoascus destructans. Journal of Fungi, 11(8), 550. https://doi.org/10.3390/jof11080550

Note that from the first issue of 2016, this journal uses article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.

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Beyond White-Nose Syndrome: Mitochondrial and Functional Genomics of Pseudogymnoascus destructans

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