Emerging fungal pathogen Fusarium is not restricted to marine turtles - first report from a freshwater turtle in the remote Amazon

A newly emerging fungal disease, egg sea turtle fusariosis, caused by members of the Fusarium solani species complex (FSSC), has been reported to be responsible for hatching failure in sea turtles around the world. However, infections caused by the FSSC have not been reported in other turtle species. Here we report for the first time fusariosis infection in the eggs of the yellow-spotted Amazon river turtle, (Podocnemis unifilis), inhabiting a pristine environment in the Ecuadorian Amazon. It is thought that the FSSC has a global distribution and includes some of the worlds most destructive pathogens, affecting both economically and ecologically important plant and animal hosts. These fungal pathogens grow in multiple environments, specially in aquatic and terrestrial environments. In this study we tested fusariosis infection by amplifying the TEF alpha1 gene from 68 swab samples of fresh water turtle eggs and amplified 8 samples using NGS, in order to understand if Fusarium spp. found in the eggs of the yellow-spotted Amazon river turtle are within the FSSC. Our results showed that infection in the freshwater turtle eggs is caused by Fusarium spp. belonging to the FSSC and phylogenetic analysis showed that the isolates from the eggs corresponded to F. keratoplasticum, F. solani and F. falciforme, the three major fungal pathogens already reported in sea turtles.