How bats tolerate viruses: Tulane study sheds light on one of nature’s biggest immune mysteries
It is a mystery that has puzzled scientists for years. How can the world’s only winged mammals carry viruses that cause severe disease while rarely becoming seriously ill themselves?
Now researchers at Tulane University, with collaborators at Stanford University and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, may have found a reason.
In a study published in Science Advances, the research team found that the world’s largest family of bats has two distinct copies of the genes that produce antibodies, the specialized proteins that help the immune system recognize and fight infections. Every other known mammal has only one such set. The discovery opens new avenues for understanding the evolution of immunity and how animals respond to disease.
"We've never seen anything like this in a mammal before," said Hannah Frank, associate professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at Tulane University School of Science and Engineering and corresponding author of the study. "This completely changes our understanding of how mammalian immune systems can be organized and raises exciting new questions about why bats have been so evolutionarily successful and how they respond to viruses."