Learning lessons from Mother Nature – and bats
You’ve probably heard of the term ‘old bat’. But the mild insult hides a germ of truth: bats can teach us a lot about ageing - and plenty else besides.
Researcher Dr Emma Teeling is discovering what we can find out from the flying mammals by using a DNA-based technique called comparative genomics, which is geared towards learning how Mother Nature has solved problems.
“The world is full of amazing animals and plants, and many of them have found ways to tackle diseases or do things that humans can’t do,” says Dr Teeling, whose team is based at University College Dublin. She concentrates on the bat, which is the only mammal that can fly.
Other intriguing features include its ability to change its metabolic rate in response to temperature, to resist viruses and to use echolocation to orientate.”
Of particular interest is the that the bat has a high metabolic rate that burns large amounts of energy flying, yet it also has longevity and therefore may be more resistant to oxidative stresses than humans. “Little is known about why bats fly, or why they evolved other remarkable abilities, like echolocation, which they use for navigation and hunting. But if we find out, this could be very useful for humans,” says Dr Teeling.
So how can we mine for clues about their success? Dr Teeling has been looking at the genome, or genetic code, of bats and comparing it to other organisms, including humans. The general idea behind these comparisons – which have recently become more information-rich thanks to improved and more cost-effective technology - is to try and better understand how genes evolve, how they are used, and the function and the role of mutations in causing things to go wrong.
“In particular, if a gene is ‘highly conserved’ over evolutionary time, meaning that it has remained the same for a long time in a given species, then chances are that if there is a mutation in this gene it will lead to an illness,” explains Dr Teeling.
At the moment, her work is focused on identifying genes in the bat that are involved with sensory perception. As different species of bats can see and hear at different levels, by studying the genes involved in inherited blindness and deafness in the bat genome we can work out the genetic basis for normal and dysfunctional perception and potentially offer new approaches to managing and treating inherited conditions in man.
Once that work is completed the next stage will be to look at genes that are important for the immune system, and after that she aims to look at genes that slow down or perhaps speed up ageing. Already Dr Teeling has contributed to a large project on the world’s smallest mammal, the bumblebee bat. Discovered in Thailand in the 1970s, it was thought to be an endangered population. Then a similar mammal was found in Myanmar in 1990. DNA analysis
showed they were two separate species that had diverged, possibly due to a change in their frequency of echolocation, which could have isolated the species from each other.
While it might seem unusual for SFI to support work on bat species divergence and echolocation on the other side of the world, she explains the identification techniques can also be applied to Irish bat populations.
In addition, increasing our knowledge of echolocation and bat genetics in general may point the way to human benefits in addressing diseases and promoting healthy ageing: “The long-living bat might one day provide the secret of eternal youth!”
