Abstract
BackgroundBats have aroused great interests of researchers for the sake of their advanced echolocation system. However, this highly specialized trait is not characteristic of Old World fruit bats.ResultsTo comprehensively explore the underlying molecular basis between echolocating and non-echolocating bats, we employed a sequence-based approach to compare the inner ear expression difference between the Rickett’s big-footed bat (Myotis ricketti, echolocating bat) and the Greater short-nosed fruit bat (Cynopterus sphinx, non-echolocating bat). De novo sequence assemblies were developed for both species. The results showed that the biological implications of up-regulated genes in M. ricketti were significantly over-represented in biological process categories such as ‘cochlea morphogenesis’, ‘inner ear morphogenesis’ and ‘sensory perception of sound’, which are consistent with the inner ear morphological and physiological differentiation between the two bat species. Moreover, the expression of TMC1 gene confirmed its important function in echolocating bats.ConclusionOur work presents the first transcriptome comparison between echolocating and non-echolocating bats, and provides information about the genetic basis of their distinct hearing traits.
Highlights
Bats have aroused great interests of researchers for the sake of their advanced echolocation system
We explored the utility of nextgeneration sequencing technologies for the comparative inner ear transcriptome analyses between the Rickett’s bigfooted bat (Myotis ricketti) and the Greater short-nosed fruit bat (Cynopterus sphinx)
De novo assembly and functional annotation Sequencing of the mRNA in the inner ear of Rickett’s big-footed bat (M. ricketti, echolocating bat) and the Greater short-nosed fruit bat (C. sphinx, non-echolocating bat) based on Illumina Genome Analyzer II generated a total of 6.8 Gbp of sequence from approximately 90 million paired-end 75 bp reads (3.3 GB and 3.5 GB for M. ricketti and C. sphinx, respectively)
Summary
Bats have aroused great interests of researchers for the sake of their advanced echolocation system. This highly specialized trait is not characteristic of Old World fruit bats. Bats belong to the order Chiroptera, which is one of the largest monophyletic clades in mammals. They constitute ~20% of living mammalian species with about 1,200 bat species worldwide [1,2,3]. Bats have long been regarded as special animals for the sake of being mysterious flyers of the night, and one of the few mammals that can use echolocation to navigate in the dark [4].
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