Why Do Bats Live So Long? The Answer Lies in Their Telomeres, But With a Twist.
Professor Emma Teeling and her team found that long-lived bats might be able to repair damage to their DNA to live healthier, longer, while also avoiding cancer.
Bats are some of the longest-lived mammals in the world relative to their size. Professor Emma Teeling and her team studied bat telomeres, the caps at the end of chromosomes, in search of longevity mechanisms. In a paper published this year, she showed that long-lived bats might be able to repair damage to their DNA to live longer, healthier — while also avoiding cancer.
The Paper: Growing old, yet staying young: The role of telomeres in bats’ exceptional longevity
Nicole M. Foley, Graham M. Hughes, Zixia Huang, Michael Clarke, David Jebb, Conor V. Whelan, Eric J. Petit, Frédéric Touzalin, Olivier Farcy, Gareth Jones, Roger D. Ransome, Joanna Kacprzyk, Mary J. O’Connell, Gerald Kerth, Hugo Rebelo, Luísa Rodrigues, Sébastien J. Puechmaille, and Emma C. Teeling
Sci Adv. 2018 Feb 7;4(2):eaao0926. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aao0926. eCollection 2018 Feb.
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