A comparative study of prenatal development in Miniopterus schreibersii fuliginosus, Hipposideros armiger and H. pratti

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Bats comprise the second largest order of mammals. However, there are far fewer morphological studies of post-implantation embryonic development than early embryonic development in bats.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We studied three species of bats (<it>Miniopterus schreibersii fuliginosus, Hipposideros armiger </it>and <it>H. pratti</it>), representing the two suborders Yangochiroptera and Yinpterochiroptera. Using an established embryonic staging system, we identified the embryonic stages for <it>M. schreibersii fuliginosus, H. armiger </it>and <it>H. pratti </it>and described the morphological changes in each species, including the development of the complex and distinctive nose-leaves in <it>H. armiger </it>and <it>H. pratti</it>. Finally, we compared embryonic and fetal morphology of the three species in the present study with five other species for which information is available.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>As a whole, the organogenetic sequence of bat embryos is uniform and the embryos appear homoplastic before Stage 16. Morphological differentiation between species occurs mainly after embryonic Stage 16. Our study provides three new bat species for interspecific comparison of post-implantation embryonic development within the order Chiroptera and detailed data on the development of nose-leaves for bats in the superfamily Rhinolophoidea.</p

The voltage-gated potassium channel subfamily KQT member 4 (KCNQ4) displays parallel evolution in echolo- cating bats

Bats are the only mammals that use highly developed laryngeal echolocation, a sensory mechanism based on the ability to emit laryngeal sounds and interpret the returning echoes to identify objects. Although this capability allows bats to orientate and hunt in complete darkness, endowing them with great survival advantages, the genetic bases underlying the evolution of bat echolocation are still largely unknown. Echolocation requires high-frequency hearing that in mammals is largely dependent on somatic electromotility of outer hair cells. Then, understanding the molecular evolution of outer hair cell genes might help to unravel the evolutionary history of echolocation. In this work, we analyzed the molecular evolution of two key outer hair cell genes: the voltage-gated potassium channel gene KCNQ4 and CHRNA10, the gene encoding the α10 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor subunit. We reconstructed the phylogeny of bats based on KCNQ4 and CHRNA10 protein and nucleotide sequences. A phylogenetic tree built using KCNQ4 amino acid sequences showed that two paraphyletic clades of laryngeal echolocating bats grouped together, with eight shared substitutions among particular lineages. In addition, our analyses indicated that two of these parallel substitutions, M388I and P406S, were probably fixed under positive selection and could have had a strong functional impact on KCNQ4. Moreover, our results indicated that KCNQ4 evolved under positive selection in the ancestral lineage leading to mammals, suggesting that this gene might have been important for the evolution of mammalian hearing. On the other hand, we found that CHRNA10, a gene that evolved adaptively in the mammalian lineage, was under strong purifying selection in bats. Thus, the CHRNA10 amino acid tree did not show echolocating bat monophyly and reproduced the bat species tree. These results suggest that only a subset of hearing genes could underlie the evolution of echolocation. The present work continues to delineate the genetic bases of echolocation and ultrasonic hearing in bats

Digital gene expression tag profiling of bat digits provides robust candidates contributing to wing formation

Abstract Background As the only truly flying mammals, bats use their unique wing - consisting of four elongated digits (digits II-V) connected by membranes - to power their flight. In addition to the elongated digits II-V, the forelimb contains one shorter digit (digit I) that is morphologically similar to the hindlimb digits. Here, we capitalized on the morphological variation among the bat forelimb digits to investigate the molecular mechanisms underlying digit elongation and wing formation. Using next generation sequencing technology, we performed digital gene expression tag profiling (DGE-tag profiling) of developing digits in a pooled sample of two Myotis ricketti and validated our sequencing results using real-time quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) of gene expression in the developing digits of two Hipposideros armiger. Results Among hundreds of genes exhibiting significant differences in expression between the short and long digits, we highlight 14 genes most related to digit elongation. These genes include two Tbx genes (Tbx3 and Tbx15), five BMP pathway genes (Bmp3, RGMB, Smad1, Smad4 and Nog), four Homeobox genes (Hoxd8, Hoxd9, Hoxa1 and Satb1), and three other genes (Twist1, Tmeff2 and Enpp2) related to digit malformations or cell proliferation. In addition, our results suggest that Tbx4 and Pitx2 contribute to the morphological similarity and five genes (Acta1, Tnnc2, Atp2a1, Hrc and Myoz1) contribute to the functional similarity between the thumb and hindlimb digits. Conclusions Results of this study not only implicate many developmental genes as robust candidates underlying digit elongation and wing formation in bats, but also provide a better understanding of the genes involved in autopodial development in general

Evolutionary relationships between bat coronaviruses and their hosts

Recent studies have suggested that bats are the natural reservoir of a range of coronaviruses (CoVs), and that rhinolophid bats harbor viruses closely related to the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) CoV, which caused an outbreak of respiratory illness in humans during 2002–2003. We examined the evolutionary relationships between bat CoVs and their hosts by using sequence data of the virus RNA-dependent RNA polymerase gene and the bat cytochrome b gene. Phylogenetic analyses showed multiple incongruent associations between the phylogenies of rhinolophid bats and their CoVs, which suggested that host shifts have occurred in the recent evolutionary history of this group. These shifts may be due to either virus biologic traits or host behavioral traits. This finding has implications for the emergence of SARS and for the potential future emergence of SARS-CoVs or related viruses

Additional file 3: of Evolution of beak morphology in the Ground Tit revealed by comparative transcriptomics

The beak shape data of 13 parids used in this study. (XLS 91 kb

Additional file 4: of Evolution of beak morphology in the Ground Tit revealed by comparative transcriptomics

The description of expression abundance of the 623 DEGs. (XLS 217 kb