Artibeus jamaicensis, the Jamaican fruit bat. Credit: Brock and Sherri Fenton/Genome Biology and Evolution
Key points:
- Rapid evolution in bats results in their unique ability to host and survive infections and avoid cancer.
- The research team discovered genetic adaptations in six DNA repair-related proteins and 46 proteins in bats that are related to cancer suppression.
- Determining how the bat immune system works can help prevent disease outbreaks, while analysis of the bat genome may provide new insight into links between cancer and immunity.
New research shows that rapid evolution in bats might underlie their extraordinary ability to host viruses, survive infections and avoid cancer.
Bats tend to have long lives, low cancer rates and robust immune systems. They have unusual immune responses and an ability to tolerate viral infections, such as SARS-CoV-2.
In a new study published in Genome Biology and Evolution, researchers at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory used the Oxford Nanopore Technologies long-read platform and bat samples from the American Museum of Natural History in Belize to sequence the genome of two bat species—the Jamaican fruit bat and the Mesoamerican mustached bat. They then performed a comprehensive comparative genomic analysis with a diverse collection of bats and other mammals.
The research team discovered genetic adaptations in six DNA repair-related proteins and 46 proteins in bats that are related to cancer suppression. These altered anticancer genes are enriched by more than two-fold in the bat group, relative to other mammals.
Understanding the bat immune system has implications for human health. In the future, determining how bats tolerate infections may help prevent disease outbreaks from animals to people, while comparative genomic analyses of bats may provide new insight into causes of cancers and the links between cancer and immunity.
“By generating these new bat genomes and comparing them to other mammals we continue to find extraordinary new adaptations in antiviral and anticancer genes,” said lead author Armin Scheben of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. “These investigations are the first step toward translating research on the unique biology of bats into insights relevant to understanding and treating aging and diseases, such as cancer, in humans.”