MessageToEagle.com - Bats are amazing creatures. They've been around for at least 65 million years, and in
that time have become one of the most abundant and widespread mammals on Earth.
The Bat Pack, a team of researchers at the Australian Animal Health Laboratory (AAHL) in Geelong, conduct a wide
range of research into bats and bat borne viruses, and their potential effects on the human population, as part of the
effort to safeguard Australia from exotic and emerging pests and diseases.
Their paper, published today in the journal Science, provides an insight into the evolution of the bat's flight,
resistance to viruses, and relatively long life.
Among the most abundant bats in North America, Mexican free–tailed bats (Tadarida brasiliensis mexicana) play an important role by devouring large numbers
of corn earworm moths, plus a similar number of other insect pests that consume corn, cotton, and other crops in Texas
and the southwestern U.S.
The Bat Pack, in collaboration with the Beijing Genome Institute, led a team that sequenced the genomes of two bat
species -- the Black Flying Fox, an Australian mega bat, and the David's Myotis, a Chinese micro bat.
Once the genomes were sequenced, they compared them to the genomes of other mammals, including humans, to find where
the similarities and differences lay.
Chris Cowled, post-doctoral fellow at AAHL says the research may eventually lead to strategies to treat, or even
prevent disease in humans.
"A deeper understanding of these evolutionary adaptations in bats may lead to better treatments for human diseases,
and may eventually enable us to predict or perhaps even prevent outbreaks of emerging bat viruses," Dr Cowled said.
"Bats are a natural reservoir for several lethal viruses, such as Hendra, Ebola and SARS, but they often don't succumb
to disease from these viruses. They're also the only mammal that can fly, and they live a long time compared to animals
similar in size."
Flying is a very energy intensive activity that also produces toxic by-products, and bats have developed some novel genes
to deal with the toxins. Some of these genes, including P53, are implicated in the development of cancer or the detection
and repair of damaged DNA.
"What we found intriguing was that some of these genes also have secondary roles in the immune system," Dr Cowled said.
"We're proposing that the evolution of flight led to a sort of spill over effect, influencing not only the immune system,
but also things like ageing and cancer."
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