First genetic identification of Pilobolus (Mucoromycotina, Mucorales) from Africa (Nairobi National Park, Kenya)

Pilobolus are abundant in herbivore dung. Although they are non-pathogenic to herbivores, they are vectors to lungworms present in the dung that cause bronchitis if ingested. Thus, determining the presence of Pilobolus in the field might prove useful to assess a link between Pilobolus and lungworm infections, as well as the areas where they occur. Species identification within the genus has mostly relied on morphological data, which lacks accuracy due to the overlap of morphological characters. In this study, we applied genetic identification to assess the presence of Pilobolus species in Nairobi National Park, Kenya. This method is more reliable than the more commonly used morphometric analyses, and the generated sequences are useful for future reference. In this study, we collected dung samples from different herbivores in Nairobi National Park, and sporangium isolates were obtained for pure cultures. DNA was extracted from the pure cultures and fungal barcode primers were employed for PCR amplification and sequencing. Two species of Pilobolus were identified, Pilobolus pullus, with a high genetic affinity, and a second cryptic species, morphologically identified as Pilobolus crystallinus, but did not have a close genetic match to any species in Genbank. Lack of identification of other Pilobolus species, known as key species in lungworm transmission, may suggest the absence of such in the sampled area.