Publications

differential expression and functional constraint of prl-2 in hibernating bat.	circannual hibernation is a biological adaptation to periods of cold and food shortage and the role of the brain in its control is poorly understood. an ssh library of hibernating bat brains (rhinolophus ferrumequinum) was constructed in order to explore the molecular mechanism of hibernation. an up-regulated gene, prl-2, was obtained from hibernating bat brains. prl-2 is a member of ptp family and has an important function in controlling cell growth. alignment of sequences showed that prl-2 is ...	2007	17683965
distribution and ultrastructure of merkel cell of the fishing bat (myotis ricketti).	the distribution and ultrastructure of merkel cells were described in detail in piscivorous bats through immunohistochemistry and transmission electron microscopy techniques. the findings indicated that merkel cells are commonly found in raised-domes, hair follicles and in the basal epidermis of the skin from their back, abdomen, intercrural membranes, wing membranes and footpads. however, the density of merkel cells is significantly higher in the footpad than in other places. these results sugg ...	2009	19802737
digital gene expression tag profiling of bat digits provides robust candidates contributing to wing formation.	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 ...	2010	21054883
bat head contains soft magnetic particles: evidence from magnetism.	recent behavioral observations have indicated that bats can sense the earth's magnetic field. to unravel the magnetoreception mechanism, the present study has utilized magnetic measurements on three migratory species (miniopterus fuliginosus, chaerephon plicata, and nyctalus plancyi) and three non-migratory species (hipposideros armiger, myotis ricketti, and rhinolophus ferrumequinum). room temperature isothermal remanent magnetization acquisition and alternating-field demagnetization showed tha ...	2010	20607738
[genetic diversity of adenoviruses in bats of china].	adenovirus remains a significant threat to public health. recent studies showed that bats can harbor diverse adenoviruses. to further investigate the distribution and genetic diversity of bat adenoviruses in china, we collected throat and anal swab samples of 11 bat species from 6 provinces of china, including beijing, hunan, jiangxi, yunnan, guizhou and hainan. nested pcr was used to identify potential bat adenoviruses from the samples, and positive results were cloned and sequenced for genetic ...	2012	22978165
comparative inner ear transcriptome analysis between the rickett's big-footed bats (myotis ricketti) and the greater short-nosed fruit bats (cynopterus sphinx).	bats 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.	2013	24365273
phylogeography of the rickett's big-footed bat, myotis pilosus (chiroptera: vespertilionidae): a novel pattern of genetic structure of bats in china.	china is characterized by complex topographic structure and dramatic palaeoclimatic changes, making species biogeography studies particularly interesting. previous researchers have also demonstrated multiple species experienced complex population histories, meanwhile multiple shelters existed in chinese mainland. despite this, species phylogeography is still largely unexplored. in the present study, we used a combination of microsatellites and mitochondrial dna (mtdna) to investigate the phyloge ...	2013	24188176
adaptation of phenylalanine and tyrosine catabolic pathway to hibernation in bats.	some mammals hibernate in response to harsh environments. although hibernating mammals may metabolize proteins, the nitrogen metabolic pathways commonly activated during hibernation are not fully characterized. in contrast to the hypothesis of amino acid preservation, we found evidence of amino acid metabolism as three of five key enzymes, including phenylalanine hydroxylase (pah), homogentisate 1,2-dioxygenase (hgd), fumarylacetoacetase (fah), involved in phenylalanine and tyrosine catabolism w ...	2013	23620802
critical roles of mitochondria in brain activities of torpid myotis ricketti bats revealed by a proteomic approach.	bats are the only mammals that fly and hibernate. little is known about their overall metabolism in the brain during hibernation. in this study, brain proteins of torpid and active myotis ricketti bats were fractionated and compared using a proteomic approach. results showed that 21% (23 proteins) of identified proteins with significant expression changes were associated with amino acid metabolism and proteostasis. the expression levels of proteins involved in energy metabolism (15 proteins), cy ...	2014	24434588
the great roundleaf bat (hipposideros armiger) as a good model for cold-induced browning of intra-abdominal white adipose tissue.	inducing beige fat from white adipose tissue (wat) is considered to be a shortcut to weight loss and increasingly becoming a key area in research into treatments for obesity and related diseases. however, currently, animal models of beige fat are restricted to rodents, where subcutaneous adipose tissue (swat, benign wat) is more liable to develop into the beige fat under specific activators than the intra-abdominal adipose tissue (awat, malignant wat) that is the major source of obesity related ...	2014	25393240
down but not out: the role of micrornas in hibernating bats.	micrornas (mirnas) regulate many physiological processes through post-transcriptional control of gene expression and are a major part of the small noncoding rnas (snrna). as hibernators can survive at low body temperatures (tb) for many months without suffering tissue damage, understanding the mechanisms that enable them to do so are of medical interest. because the brain integrates peripheral physiology and white adipose tissue (wat) is the primary energy source during hibernation, we hypothesi ...	2015	26244645
adaptation of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha to hibernation in bats.	hibernation is a survival mechanism in the winter for some animals. fat preserved instead of glucose produced is the primary fuel during winter hibernation of mammals. many genes involved in lipid metabolism are regulated by the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha (pparα). the role of pparα in hibernation of mammals remains largely unknown. using a multidisciplinary approach, we investigated whether pparα is adapted to hibernation in bats.	2015	25980933
molecular detection and phylogenetic characterization of bat and human adenoviruses in southern china.	several novel adenoviruses (advs) have recently been identified in humans and other animal species. in this study, we report the molecular detection of and phylogenetically characterize bat and human advs detected in fecal or rectal swab samples collected in southern china. to detect advs, a 252-261 bp fragment of the dna polymerase (dpol) gene was amplified using nested pcr. a total of 520 rectal swab samples were collected from eight bat species in four geographic regions of southern china (gu ...	2016	27057618
detection of diverse viruses in alimentary specimens of bats in macau.	bats carry a variety of viruses, and some of them cause public health problems. macau, which is famous for its gambling industry, has a complex population structure. the globalization in such an international metropolis has enhanced the chance of disease transmission. therefore, surveillance of zoonotic viruses is necessary for the early warning of potential emerging infectious diseases. here, we report the first surveillance of bat viruses in macau. in this study, we collected 1004 samples invo ...	2017	28589292
novel bartonella species in insectivorous bats, northern china.	bartonella species are emerging human pathogens. bats are known to carry diverse bartonella species, some of which are capable of infecting humans. however, as the second largest mammalian group by a number of species, the role of bats as the reservoirs of bartonella species is not fully explored, in term of their species diversity and worldwide distribution. china, especially northern china, harbors a number of endemic insectivorous bat species; however, to our knowledge, there are not yet stud ...	2017	28081122
adaptation of the fk506 binding protein 1b to hibernation in bats.	hibernation is an adaptive strategy used by some animals to cope with cold and food shortage. the heart rate, overall energy need, body temperature, and many other physiological functions are greatly reduced during torpor but promptly return to normal levels upon arousal. the heartbeat of torpid bats can be hundreds fold lower than that of active bats, indicating that hibernating bats have a remarkable ability to control excitation-contraction coupling in cardiac muscle. fkbp1b (calstabin 2), a ...	2018	30056853
pathogenic leptospira species in insectivorous bats, china, 2015.	pcr amplification of the rrs2 gene indicated that 50% (62/124) of insectivorous bats from eastern china were infected with leptospira borgpetersenii, l. kirschneri, and several potentially new leptospira species. multilocus sequence typing defined 3 novel sequence types in l. kirschneri, suggesting that bats are major carriers of leptospira.	2018	29774833
the roles of morphological traits, resource variation and resource partitioning associated with the dietary niche expansion in the fish-eating bat myotis pilosus.	niche expansion and shifts are involved in the response and adaptation to environmental changes. however, it is unclear how niche breadth evolves and changes toward higher-quality resources. myotis pilosus is both an insectivore and a piscivore. we examined the dietary composition and seasonality in m. pilosus and the closely related myotis fimbriatus using next-generation dna sequencing. we tested whether resource variation or resource partitioning help explain the dietary expansion from insect ...	2019	31063664
transcriptome sequencing of cochleae from constant-frequency and frequency-modulated echolocating bats.	echolocating bats are fascinating for their ability to 'see' the world in the darkness. ultrahigh frequency hearing is essential for echolocation. in this study we collected cochlear tissues from constant-frequency (cf) bats (two subspecies of rhinolophus affinis, rhinolophidae) and frequency-modulated (fm) bats (myotis ricketti, vespertilionidae) and applied pacbio single-molecule real-time isoform sequencing (iso-seq) technology to generate the full-length (fl) transcriptomes for the three tax ...	2020	33051458
co-activation of akt, nrf2, and nf-κb signals under uprer in torpid myotis ricketti bats for survival.	bats hibernate to survive stressful conditions. examination of whole cell and mitochondrial proteomes of the liver of myotis ricketti revealed that torpid bats had endoplasmic reticulum unfolded protein response (uprer), global reduction in glycolysis, enhancement of lipolysis, and selective amino acid metabolism. compared to active bats, torpid bats had higher amounts of phosphorylated serine/threonine kinase (p-akt) and uprer markers such as pkr-like endoplasmic reticulum kinase (perk) and act ...	2020	33177645