Elucidating Bat SuperImmunity: Insights from the Bent-Wing Bat Genome Assembly and Multi-Omics Analysis
Bats have evolved a range of unique adaptations, including powered flight, echolocation, and exceptional longevity. They have also attracted considerable scientific attention, particularly since the COVID-19 pandemic, due to their association with a broad diversity of viruses and their potential role in zoonotic transmission and emerging infectious diseases. Despite hosting numerous viruses, bats often exhibit limited clinical manifestations of infection, suggesting the evolution of distinctive mechanisms of immune regulation and tolerance. Understanding the molecular basis of these mechanisms has become a major focus of current research, with genome-wide analyses providing important insights into the genetic adaptations underlying bat immunity. Nevertheless, the regulatory complexity of bat genomes, particularly the contribution of non-coding RNAs and post-transcriptional RNA editing, remains comparatively underexplored. Here, we present an integrated multi-omic framework for the common bent-wing bat (Miniopterus schreibersii), combining a contiguous chromosome-scale genome assembly with multi-tissue transcriptomic profiling, long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) identification and synteny analysis, endogenous viral elements (EVE) mapping, and same-individual RNA editomic analyses. This study provides a comprehensive resource for investigating genome organization, transcriptional regulation, evolutionary relationships, and post-transcriptional modifications in this species. In particular, it offers an opportunity to explore the potential contribution of non-coding regulatory elements and RNA editing to the molecular mechanisms underlying viral interactions and immune regulation in bats. Collectively, these resources provide a valuable foundation for advancing our understanding of bat genome evolution and the regulatory mechanisms potentially associated with their distinctive responses to viral infections.