Advancements in noninvasive koala monitoring through combining Chlamydia detection with a targeted koala genotyping assay

H K A Premachandra; Carme Piza-Roca; Andrea Casteriano; Damien P Higgins; Katrin Hohwieler; Daniel Powell; Romane H Cristescu

doi:10.1038/s41598-024-76873-1

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Advancements in noninvasive koala monitoring through combining Chlamydia detection with a targeted koala genotyping assay

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Advancements in noninvasive koala monitoring through combining Chlamydia detection with a targeted koala genotyping assay

H K A Premachandra, Carme Piza-Roca, Andrea Casteriano, Damien P Higgins, Katrin Hohwieler, Daniel Powell and Romane H Cristescu

Scientific Reports, Vol.14, pp.1-8

2024

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-76873-1

PMCID: PMC11621440

PMID: 39638795

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Abstract

ecological genetics

ecological modelling

Wildlife diseases are major players in local and global extinctions. Effective disease surveillance, management and conservation strategies require accurate estimates of pathogen prevalence. Yet pathogen detection in wild animals remains challenging. Current gold standards often require samples collected through veterinary examination, but this method is costly, intensive, invasive, and requires specialised staff and equipment. Collection of non-invasive samples, such as scats, is an effective monitoring tool which can be deployed at large scale, as scats contain DNA of both host and pathogens. The koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) is listed as 'endangered' under the EPBC Act 1999, with chlamydial disease representing a major threat. Here, we present a new approach that combines restriction-enzyme associated sequencing and targeted-sequence-capture genotyping, namely DArTcap, to detect Chlamydia pecorum in koala scats. We found this method has similar accuracy to current gold standards (qPCR of swab samples), with a sensitivity of 91.7% and a specificity of 100%. This method can be incorporated into existing koala genetic studies using marker panels, where population attributes can be estimated alongside C. pecorum presence, using the same scat samples, with the option to add further markers of interest. Such a one-stop-shop panel would considerably reduce processing times and cost.

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Title: Advancements in noninvasive koala monitoring through combining Chlamydia detection with a targeted koala genotyping assay
Authors: H K A Premachandra - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Centre for Bioinnovation
Carme Piza-Roca - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Science, Technology and Engineering
Andrea Casteriano - The University of Sydney
Damien P Higgins - The University of Sydney
Katrin Hohwieler - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Science, Technology and Engineering
Daniel Powell - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Centre for Bioinnovation
Romane H Cristescu (Corresponding Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Science, Technology and Engineering
Publication details: Scientific Reports, Vol.14, pp.1-8
Publisher: Nature Publishing Group
Date published: 2024
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-76873-1
ISSN: 2045-2322
PMID: 39638795; PMC11621440
Copyright note: This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the licensed material. You do not have permission under this licence to share adapted material derived from this article or parts of it. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.
Data Availability: Data is available in the Supplementary Material. Genetic sequences will be made available upon request.
Grant note: The collection of data used in this study was part of separate projects which were funded by Queensland Government Department of Transport and Main Roads and Redland City Council.
Organisation Unit: Office of Research; School of Science, Technology and Engineering; Centre for Bioinnovation
Language: English
Record Identifier: 991087292202621
Output Type: Journal article

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