Project description:Bats harbour various viruses without severe symptoms and act as natural reservoirs. This tolerance of bats toward viral infections is assumed to be originated from the uniqueness of their immune system. However, how the innate immune response varies between primates and bats remains unclear. To illuminate differences in innate immune responses among animal species, we performed a comparative single-cell RNA-sequencing analysis on peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from four species including Egyptian fruit bats inoculated with various infectious stimuli.
Project description:Hearing mediates many behaviors critical for survival in echolocating bats, including foraging and navigation. Although most mammals are susceptible to progressive age-related hearing loss, the evolution of biosonar, which requires the ability to hear low-intensity echoes from outgoing sonar signals, may have selected against the development of hearing deficits in bats. Many echolocating bats exhibit exceptional longevity and rely on acoustic behaviors for survival to old age; however relatively little is known about the aging bat auditory system. In this study, we used DNA methylation to estimate the ages of wild-caught big brown bats (Eptesicus fuscus) and measured hearing sensitivity in young and aging bats using auditory brainstem responses (ABRs) and distortion product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAEs). We found no evidence for hearing deficits in bats up to 12.5 years of age, demonstrated by comparable thresholds and similar ABR and DPOAE amplitudes across age groups. We additionally found no significant histological evidence for cochlear aging, with similar hair cell counts, afferent, and efferent innervation patterns in young and aging bats. Here we demonstrate that big brown bats show minimal evidence for age-related hearing loss and therefore represent informative models for investigating mechanisms that may preserve hearing function over a long lifetime.
Project description:As the only truly flying mammals, bats use their unique wing formed from elongated digits connected by membranes to power their flight. The forelimb of bats consists of four elongated digits (digits II-V) and one shorter digit (digit I) that is morphologically similar to the hindlimb digits. Elongation of bat forelimb digits is thought to results from changes in the temporal and spatial expression of a number of developmental genes. As a result, comparing gene expression profiles between short and elongated digit morphologies of the fore- and hindlimbs may elucidate the molecular mechanisms underlying digit elongation in bats. Here, we performed a large-scale analysis of gene expression of forelimb digit I, forelimb digits II-V, and all five hindlimb digits in Myotis ricketti using digital gene expression tag profiling approach. Results of this study not only implicate several developmental genes as robust candidates underlying digit elongation in bats, but also provide a better understanding of the genes involved in autopodial development in general. A large-scale analysis of gene expression of 3 different parts of autopods in Myotis ricketti using digital gene expression tag profiling approach.
Project description:Bats are the only mammals capable of self-powered flying. Many bat species hibernate in winter. A reversible control of cerebral activities is critical for bats to accommodate a repeated torpor-arousal cycle during hibernation. Little is known about the molecular mechanism that regulates neuronal activities in torpid bats. In this study, brain proteins were fractionated and compared between torpid and active Rhinolophus ferrumequinum bats.
Project description:The only freely flying mammals, bats, develop a pair of dramatically elongated hands and broad wing membranes. It is hypothesized that alterations of many gene expressions result in the bat wing formation. However, it remains to be proved. Here, by mRNA-seq, we found that hundreds of genes are significantly high expressed in the elongating forelimb digits. mRNA-seq data of 14 autopod samples from embryonic bats (Miniopterus schreibersii) were obtained by Illumina HiSeq 2000.
Project description:Bats harbor high-impact zoonotic viruses in absence of clinical disease, which has been recently associated with unique features of their immune system. They seem to restrict inflammation and possibly limit disease manifestation to a minimum. In-depth characterization of cellular immunity in bats is yet largely missing, and imprinting of age and development on immune cell compartments remains unexplored. We employed single-cell transcriptomics and established immunostaining panels to investigate the immune cell populations peripheral blood for juvenile and adult Egyptian Rousette bats (ERB).
Project description:Vampire bats and snakes have taken thermosensation to the extreme by developing specialized systems for detecting infrared radiation. As such, these creatures provide a window into the molecular and genetic mechanisms underlying evolutionary tuning of thermoreceptors in a species or cell type specific manner. In each case, robust thermal sensitivity likely reflects specialized anatomical features of infrared sensing pit organs, as well as intrinsic heat sensitivity of trigeminal nerve fibers that innervate these structures. Here we show that vampire bats use a molecular strategy involving alternative splicing of the TRPV1 gene to generate a channel specifically within trigeminal ganglia that has a reduced thermal activation threshold. Selective expression of splicing factors in trigeminal, but not dorsal root ganglia, together with unique organization of the vampire bat TRPV1 gene underlies this mechanism of sensory adaptation. Comparative genomic analysis of the TRPV1 locus supports phylogenetic relationships within the proposed Pegasoferae clade of mammals. Gene expression measurements implicate a TRPV1 splice isoform as the heat-sensitive channel in vampire bats