Genomic basis of bat superpowers revealed: Like how they survive deadly viruses

Date:
July 22, 2020
Source:
Stony Brook University
Summary:
The genetic material that codes for bat adaptations and superpowers
- such as the ability to fly, to use sound to move effortlessly
in complete darkness, to tolerate and survive potentially deadly
viruses, and to resist aging and cancer - has been revealed and
published in Nature.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
The genetic material that codes for bat adaptations and superpowers
-- such as the ability to fly, to use sound to move effortlessly in
complete darkness, to tolerate and survive potentially deadly viruses,
and to resist aging and cancer -- has been revealed and published in
Nature. Liliana M. Da'valos, a Stony Brook University evolutionary
biologist and co-author, worked as part of the executive committee of
the global consortium of scientists, Bat1K, to sequence the genome of
six widely divergent living bat species.


========================================================================== Although other bat genomes have been published before, the Bat1K genomes
are 10 times more complete than any bat genome published to date.

One aspect of the paper findings shows evolution through gene expansion
and loss in a family of genes, APOBEC3, which is known to play an
important role in immunity to viruses in other mammals. The details in
the paper that explain this evolution set the groundwork for investigating
how these genetic changes, found in bats but not in other mammals, could
help prevent the worst outcomes of viral diseases in other mammals,
including humans.

"More and more, we find gene duplications and losses as important
processes in the evolution of new features and functions across the
Tree of Life. But, determining when genes have duplicated is difficult
if the genome is incomplete, and it is even harder to figure out if
genes have been lost. At extremely high quality, the new bat genomes
leave no doubts about changes in important gene families that could not
be discovered otherwise with lower- quality genomes," said Da'valos,
a Professor in Department of Ecology and Evolution in the College of
Arts and Sciences at Stony Brook University.

To generate the bat genomes, the team used the newest technologies
of the DRESDEN-concept Genome Center, a shared technology resource in
Dresden, Germany to sequence the bat's DNA, and generated new methods to assemble these pieces into the correct order and to identify the genes
present. While previous efforts had identified genes with the potential
to influence the unique biology of bats, uncovering how gene duplications contributed to this unique biology was complicated by incomplete genomes.

The team compared these bat genomes against 42 other mammals to address
the unresolved question of where bats are located within the mammalian
tree of life. Using novel phylogenetic methods and comprehensive
molecular data sets, the team found the strongest support for bats being
most closely related to a group called Fereuungulata that consists of carnivorans (which includes dogs, cats and seals, among other species), pangolins, whales and ungulates (hooved mammals).

To uncover genomic changes that contribute to the unique adaptations
found in bats, the team systematically searched for gene differences
between bats and other mammals, identifying regions of the genome that
have evolved differently in bats and the loss and gain of genes that
may drive bats' unique traits.

"It is thanks to a series of sophisticated statistical analyses that
we have started to uncover the genetics behind bats' 'superpowers,'
including their strong apparent abilities to tolerate and overcome RNA viruses," said Da'valos.

The researchers found evidence the exquisite genomes revealed "fossilized viruses," evidence of surviving past viral infections, and showed that bat genomes contained a higher diversity of these viral remnants than other
species providing a genomic record of ancient historical interaction with
viral infections. The genomes also revealed the signatures of many other genetic elements besides ancient viral insertions, including 'jumping
genes' or transposable elements.

The study was funded in part by the Max Planck Society, the European
Research Council, the Irish Research Council, the Human Frontiers of
Science Program, and the National Science Foundation (Grant number
1838273).


========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Stony_Brook_University. Note:
Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. David Jebb, Zixia Huang, Martin Pippel, Graham M. Hughes, Ksenia
Lavrichenko, Paolo Devanna, Sylke Winkler, Lars S. Jermiin,
Emilia C.

Skirmuntt, Aris Katzourakis, Lucy Burkitt-Gray, David A. Ray,
Kevin A. M.

Sullivan, Juliana G. Roscito, Bogdan M. Kirilenko, Liliana
M. Da'valos, Angelique P. Corthals, Megan L. Power, Gareth Jones,
Roger D. Ransome, Dina K. N. Dechmann, Andrea G. Locatelli,
Se'bastien J. Puechmaille, Olivier Fedrigo, Erich D. Jarvis,
Michael Hiller, Sonja C. Vernes, Eugene W. Myers, Emma
C. Teeling. Six reference-quality genomes reveal evolution of bat
adaptations. Nature, 2020; 583 (7817): 578 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-
020-2486-3 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/07/200722112652.htm

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