Eight bat genomes link longevity to cancer-fighting genes

At night, Juan Manuel Vazquez and Berkeley undergraduates raised mist nets over streams, ponds and rivers across the western United States. They caught bats, took small tissue samples from their wings, and released them. The effort led to a new comparison of eight Myotis genomes, revealing a link between longer life spans and higher levels of cancer-fighting genes.

Myotis is the genus that includes Brandt's myotis, Myotis brandtii. One individual was banded in Europe and recaptured 50 years later. The genus also spans a wide range of longevity: the black myotis, Myotis nigricans, lives about seven years, while some Brandt's myotis bats can live half a century.

The team then grew cells taken from bat wings in the laboratory. When researchers exposed little brown bat cells to toxic chemicals, the longest-lived bat in their sample did not respond by activating genes for DNA-repair proteins. Instead, it increased genes that promote cell death. The apparent strategy is simple: when a damaged cell cannot be saved, remove it before it becomes a larger problem. The researchers say elephants show the same response, although the comparison is not the central result of the bat genome analysis.

The biology matters because bats combine long lives with immune systems that remain highly active while suppressing damaging inflammation from constant viral infections. Peter Sudmant, a UC Berkeley associate professor of integrative biology, said the work points to an overlap between genes involved in aging and those involved in fighting disease. That could help researchers study why immunity declines with age and how damaged cells are handled.

So what, concretely? For now, this is a laboratory lead, not a human therapy. It gives aging researchers a set of bat genes and cellular responses to investigate, potentially connecting cancer resistance, infection and immune decline rather than treating them as separate problems. The measurements come from the researchers' genome analysis and cell cultures, so the work offers clues rather than a demonstrated human benefit.