Plate Nº 20 · recorded October 10, 2026
Biology & EvolutionReported finding
Bats Carry a Double Antibody System No Other Mammal Has
A study in Science Advances finds over 500 vesper bat species carry two sets of antibody genes — an immune arrangement never before seen in any other mammal.
By James Calloway3 min read615 words
In brief
- A study published September 3, 2026, in Science Advances found vesper bats possess two separate sets of antibody genes.
- More than 500 vesper bat species, living on every continent except Antarctica, carry the duplicated gene system.
- Every other known mammal, including humans, has only one set of antibody heavy-chain genes.
- The study was led by Hannah Frank of Tulane University with collaborators at Stanford and the CDC.
- The finding does not fully explain why bats tolerate viruses; the exact mechanism remains an open research question.
More than 500 species of vesper bats carry two separate sets of antibody genes — an immune arrangement that no other known mammal possesses, according to a study published September 3, 2026, in Science Advances.
The finding may partly explain one of biology's enduring puzzles: how bats host viruses that cause severe disease in other animals while rarely becoming seriously ill themselves.
Researchers at Tulane University, working with collaborators at Stanford University and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, discovered that the world's largest bat family carries two distinct copies of the genes that produce antibodies. Antibodies are specialized Y-shaped proteins that help the immune system identify and fight infections. In humans and every other known mammal, a single set of these genes does the job.
"We've never seen anything like this in a mammal before," said Hannah Frank, associate professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at Tulane University School of Science and Engineering and corresponding author of the study. "This completely changes our understanding of how mammalian immune systems can be organized and raises exciting new questions about why bats have been so evolutionarily successful and how they respond to viruses."
What did the researchers actually find?
The discovery centers on vesper bats, a group of more than 500 species living on every continent except Antarctica. Scientists have long been intrigued by these bats' extraordinary evolutionary success, and their unusual antibody system may be one piece of that explanation.
Antibodies are built from two heavy protein chains and two light protein chains. In humans and all other known mammals, the heavy chains come from a single set of genes. Vesper bats break that rule. Frank and her colleagues found that these bats have two separate heavy-chain gene systems, potentially giving them another way to produce a wider variety of antibodies.
Researchers studying bat immunity have traditionally focused on the innate immune system — the body's rapid, first-line defenses. Frank said the new findings show that the adaptive immune system, the part responsible for producing antibodies, also deserves closer attention.
Does this solve the mystery of bat viruses?
Not entirely, and the researchers are careful to say so.
"We think this discovery is an important piece of the puzzle," Frank said. "It doesn't fully explain why bats are such effective viral reservoirs, but it reveals a level of immune variety we didn't know existed and gives us an entirely new direction to explore."
The study documents the duplicated gene system but does not yet demonstrate exactly how the extra antibody genes change how bats respond to individual viruses. That mechanism remains an open question for future research.
Why bat immunity matters beyond bats
Bats play important ecological roles as pollinators, seed dispersers and natural pest controllers. At the same time, as Frank notes, they are natural hosts for many viruses.
Learning how bats live alongside those viruses without becoming ill could eventually help researchers better understand immune responses in other species. That knowledge may also contribute to improved strategies for reducing the risk of disease spillover — the jump of pathogens from animals to humans.
"We've learned an enormous amount about immunity by studying humans and laboratory mice," Frank said. "But the natural world is far more varied than that. Every time we study a species that has evolved differently, we have the opportunity to discover something entirely new."
The study, led by first author Taylor Pursell and published in Science Advances (vol. 12, issue 31), gives scientists a new framework for thinking about how immune systems evolve — and how one of the planet's most successful mammalian groups manages to coexist with its many viral passengers.
via dx.doi.org (Original)
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Staff writer covering marketplaces and e-commerce at SciBeat.
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