High basal heat-shock protein expression in bats confers resistance to cellular heat/oxidative stress

Abstract

Bats, unique among mammals with powered flight, have many species with the longest size-proportionate lifespan of all mammals. Evolutionary adaptations would have been required to survive the elevated body temperatures during flight. Heat shock protein (HSP), highly conserved master regulators of cell stress, expression was examined across tissues and various cell lines in bats. Basal expression level of major HSPs (HSP70 and HSP90) is significantly higher in two different bat species compared to other mammals. This HSP expression could be a bat-unique, key factor to modulate cellular stress and death. Consequently, bat cells survive prolonged heat treatment, along with other stress stimuli, in a HSP-dependent manner, whereas other mammalian cells succumbed. This suggests HSP expression in bats could be an important adaption to intrinsic metabolic stresses like flight and therefore an important model to study stress resilience and longevity in general.