Immunological adaptations in bats to moderate the effect of coronavirus infection
2020-06-08


Liliana M. Dávalos
Professor of Conservation Biology
I’m interested in how biology and the environment shape biodiversity in time and space.
Related
- Regrowing the brain; evolution and mechanisms of seasonal reversible size changes in a mammal
- Genomics of exceptions to scaling of longevity to body size
- Discovering genomic and developmental mechanisms that underlie sensory innovations critical to adaptive diversification
- Global Union of Bat Diversity Networks (GBatNet)
- Bat goblet cells as immuno-hotspots for infection of coronavirus
Publications
Bats carry viruses that can cause severe disease in other mammals. Asymptomatic infections in bats suggest limited tissue-damaging inflammation and immunopathology. To investigate the genomic basis of disease resistance, the Bat1K project generated reference-quality genomes of ten bat species. A systematic analysis showed that signatures of selection in immune genes are more prevalent in bats compared with other mammals. We found an excess of immune gene adaptations in the ancestral Chiroptera and many descending bat lineages, highlighting viral entry and detection factors, and regulators of antiviral and inflammatory responses. ISG15, an antiviral gene contributing to hyperinflammation during COVID-19, exhibits a deletion of a cysteine, required for homodimer formation, in rhinolophid and hipposiderid bats. Cellular infection experiments showed enhanced intracellular protein conjugation of bat ISG15 and lack of secretion into extracellular space, where human ISG15 stimulates inflammation. Our work highlights molecular mechanisms contributing to viral tolerance and disease resistance in bats.
Ariadna E. Morales,
Yue Dong,
Thomas Brown,
Kaushal Baid,
Dimitrios - Georgios Kontopoulos,
Victoria Gonzalez,
Zixia Huang,
Alexis-Walid Ahmed,
Leon Hilgers,
Sylke Winkler,
Graham M. Hughes,
Xiaomeng Li,
Bogdan M. Kirilenko,
Paolo Devanna,
Tanya M. Lama,
Yomiran Nissan,
Martin Pippel,
Liliana M. Dávalos,
Sonja C. Vernes,
Sebastien J. Puechmaille,
Stephen J. Rossiter,
Yossi Yovel,
Joseph B. Prescott,
Andreas Kurth,
David A. Ray,
Burton K. Lim,
Eugene Myers,
Emma C. Teeling,
Arinjay Banerjee,
Aaron T. Irving,
Michael Hiller
Comprising more than 1,400 species, bats possess adaptations unique among mammals including powered flight, unexpected longevity, and …
Diana D. Moreno-Santillán,
Tanya Lama,
Yocelyn Gutiérrez Guerrero,
Alexis Brown,
Paul Donat,
Huabin Zhao,
Stephen Rossiter,
Laurel R. Yohe,
Joshua Potter,
Emma C. Teeling,
Sonja Vernes,
Kalina T.J. Davies,
Eugene Myers,
Graham M. Hughes,
Zixia Huang,
Federico G. Hoffmann,
Angelique P. Corthals,
David Ray,
Liliana M. Dávalos