This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Bats are anomalies in the mammalian world—they fly, have long lifespans and rarely get cancer. Scientists now suspect the bat immune system enables them to live longer without disease, according to a new study published today in Nature.
An international team led by researchers from the University of Vermont and Penn State University found that the key to bats' impressive lifespan and ability to resist cancer is embedded in their DNA—specifically, the way bats encode genomic changes after exposure to pathogens in their environment. "Pathogen adaptation, longevity and cancer resistance—they are fundamentally linked," says Elise Lauterbur, an assistant professor of evolutionary biology at the University of Vermont and co-lead author of the study. "Many of the genes that have adapted to viruses in bats are genes that are also involved in longevity and cancer resistance." By analyzing the bat genome and experimenting on cultivated cells to mimic their response to disease, the researchers identified where in the distant past eight species of Myotis—one of the largest groups of bats, found nearly everywhere except Antarctica—encountered pathogens and how they influenced their evolution.
The team screened the genome for positive selection, in this case adaptation to viruses, to pinpoint structural changes such as gene duplication or deletion. They found key differences between how bats and humans and other primates have adapted to DNA and RNA viruses. While humans show positive selection for proteins that interact with RNA viruses such as SARS-CoV-2 and influenza, bats have greater selection for proteins that react to DNA viruses such as hepatitis B and herpesviruses.
This suggests a mismatch between humans and bats that can leave both species vulnerable to potential disease spillover. Curiously, the team also discovered that bats exhibit a unique gene-copy mechanism for DNA repair—a process essential for longevity and resistance to age-related diseases such as cancer. "One of the things that copy number variation allows is for diversification of the function of the gene," Lauterbur explains.
"Most of the time, when coding changes occur, it breaks rather than shifts to a new function. Copy number variation allows you to diversify," Lauterbur says. "So potentially, you now have two things you are good at instead of one." This boosted immune defense strategy may allow bats to respond to multiple viruses or promote longevity using new pathways.
The researchers built the first near-complete genomes for eight different Myotis bats to look for clues into how disease resistance played a role. They collected tissue from Myotis bats in the American West using a novel sampling approach developed by biologist Juan Manuel "Manny" Vazquez, an assistant professor at Penn State University and co-lead author of the study. Instead of harvesting organ tissue, the scientists biopsied tiny circular patches from the wings akin to an ear piercing.
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