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Morales, A. E., Dong, Y., Brown, T., Baid, K., Kontopoulos, D.-.-G., Gonzalez, V., Huang, Z., Ahmed, A.-W., Bhuinya, A., Hilgers, L., Winkler, S., Hughes, G., Li, X., Lu, P., Yang, Y., Kirilenko, B. M., Devanna, P., Lama, T. M., Nissan, Y., Pippel, M. Morales, A. E., Dong, Y., Brown, T., Baid, K., Kontopoulos, D.-.-G., Gonzalez, V., Huang, Z., Ahmed, A.-W., Bhuinya, A., Hilgers, L., Winkler, S., Hughes, G., Li, X., Lu, P., Yang, Y., Kirilenko, B. M., Devanna, P., Lama, T. M., Nissan, Y., Pippel, M., Dávalos, L. M., Vernes, S. C., Puechmaille, S. J., Rossiter, S. J., Yovel, Y., Prescott, J. B., Kurth, A., Ray, D. A., Lim, B. K., Myers, E., Teeling, E. C., Banerjee, A., Irving, A. T., & Hiller, M. (2025). Bat genomes illuminate adaptations to viral tolerance and disease resistance. Nature, 638, 449-458. doi:10.1038/s41586-024-08471-0.
Abstract
Zoonoses are infectious diseases transmitted from animals to humans. Bats have been suggested to harbour more zoonotic viruses than any other mammalian order1. Infections in bats are largely asymptomatic2,3, indicating limited tissue-damaging inflammation and immunopathology. To investigate the genomic basis of disease resistance, the Bat1K project generated reference-quality genomes of ten bat species, including potential viral reservoirs. Here we describe a systematic analysis covering 115 mammalian genomes that revealed that signatures of selection in immune genes are more prevalent in bats than in other mammalian orders. We found an excess of immune gene adaptations in the ancestral chiropteran branch and in many descending bat lineages, highlighting viral entry and detection factors, and regulators of antiviral and inflammatory responses. ISG15, which is an antiviral gene contributing to hyperinflammation during COVID-19 (refs. 4,5), exhibits key residue changes in rhinolophid and hipposiderid bats. Cellular infection experiments show species-specific antiviral differences and an essential role of protein conjugation in antiviral function of bat ISG15, separate from its role in secretion and inflammation in humans. Furthermore, in contrast to humans, ISG15 in most rhinolophid and hipposiderid bats has strong anti-SARS-CoV-2 activity. Our work reveals molecular mechanisms that contribute to viral tolerance and disease resistance in bats.Additional information
supplementary information -
Vernes, S. C. (2017). What bats have to say about speech and language. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 24(1), 111-117. doi:10.3758/s13423-016-1060-3.
Abstract
Understanding the biological foundations of language is vital to gaining insight into how the capacity for language may have evolved in humans. Animal models can be exploited to learn about the biological underpinnings of shared human traits, and although no other animals display speech or language, a range of behaviors found throughout the animal kingdom are relevant to speech and spoken language. To date, such investigations have been dominated by studies of our closest primate relatives searching for shared traits, or more distantly related species that are sophisticated vocal communicators, like songbirds. Herein I make the case for turning our attention to the Chiropterans, to shed new light on the biological encoding and evolution of human language-relevant traits. Bats employ complex vocalizations to facilitate navigation as well as social interactions, and are exquisitely tuned to acoustic information. Furthermore, bats display behaviors such as vocal learning and vocal turn-taking that are directly pertinent for human spoken language. Emerging technologies are now allowing the study of bat vocal communication, from the behavioral to the neurobiological and molecular level. Although it is clear that no single animal model can reflect the complexity of human language, by comparing such findings across diverse species we can identify the shared biological mechanisms likely to have influenced the evolution of human language. Keywords
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