S4.10 Creatures of the night: the genetics of bats
Hello, and welcome to Genetics Unzipped - the Genetics Society podcast, with me, Dr Kat Arney. In this episode we’re taking to the night skies with a closer look at the genetics of bats. Usually the stuff of horror films and Hallowe’en, these fascinating mammals have many important genetic secrets to share with us about evolution, longevity, immunity and more.
Although they’re more usually associated with spooky winter nights and creepy castles, bats are fans of the summer months. Head outside as dusk falls on a warm night, and you might be lucky enough to spot some bats as they whizz by. I’ve got some that visit my garden through the summer, and I love watching them zip around with incredible agility.
Genetics Unzipped’s roving reporter Georgia Mills is also a big bat fan, so she went in search of some experts to explain why bats are so special, how they evolved their incredible abilities, what we can learn from them, and also their role in spreading disease.
Emma Teeling: Bats and why I love them
First up, one of the world’s leading bat geneticists, Professor Emma Teeling from University College Dublin. She’s Director of the Centre for Irish Bat Research and co-founding Director of Bat1K, a global consortium sequencing the genomes of every single one of the world’s living bat species. Click here to find out what makes bats so special?
Kalina Davies: Supersenses - the evolution of bat echolocation
Although this ability to sense the world through sound is not unique to bats - and not all bats can echolocate - they have certainly taken it to another level. So, how do they do it? And how did this ability evolve? Click here to read our chat with Dr Kalina Davies at Queen Mary University of London, who’s been trying to find out.
Elizabeth Castro Salas: Tequila bats and coronaviruses
While we can agree that bats probably don’t deserve the reputation they get from horror movies, they are carriers of many diseases. And while they don’t necessarily get sick, they can act as reservoirs for infectious agents and can pass them on to humans and other animals. Click here to discover more about how these animals pick up and transmit infections.
That’s all for now. Thanks to our guests, Elizabeth Castro Salas, Emma Teeling and Kalina Davies and to our delightfully batty roving reporter Georgia Mills. Huge thanks as well to Alysa Hulpert for taking Georgia out into the Cambridgeshire countryside with her bat detector to capture their fascinating sounds.
We’ll be back next time taking a look at how genetic engineering technology has been used to turn genes into transformative drugs like insulin, growth hormone and monoclonal antibodies.
For more information about this podcast including show notes, transcripts, links, references, music credits and everything else head over to geneticsunzipped.com You can find us on Twitter @geneticsunzip and please do take a moment to rate and review us on Apple podcasts - it really makes a difference and helps more people discover the show.
Genetics Unzipped is written and presented by me, Kat Arney, with additional reporting by Georgia Mills. It is produced by First Create the Media for The Genetics Society - one of the oldest learned societies in the world dedicated to supporting and promoting the research, teaching and application of genetics. You can find out more and apply to join at genetics.org.uk. Our theme music was composed by Dan Pollard, and the logo was designed by James Mayall, and audio production was by Hannah Varrall. Thanks for listening, and until next time, goodbye.
Sound effects licensed from Epidemic Sound
Image credits:
Flying Foxes: byrdyak via Envato
Emma Teeling: Photo courtesy of Emma Teeling
Kalina Davies: Photo courtesy of Kalina Davies
Elizabeth Castro Salas: Photo courtesy of Elizabeth Castro Salas
Pipistrelle Bat: CreativeNature_nl via Envato
