Molecular adaptations underlying high-frequency hearing in the brain of CF bats species

TL;DR

This study explores how the brains of CF bats have evolved to support high-frequency hearing, identifying key genes involved in this adaptation.

Contribution

The study reveals molecular adaptations in the brain of CF bats related to high-frequency hearing, including a key candidate gene undergoing adaptive evolution.

Findings

3,088 differentially expressed genes were found between CF and FM bat brains.

Highly expressed genes in CF bats were enriched in neuron and neurodevelopmental processes.

The ADCY1 gene was identified as a key candidate involved in high-frequency hearing in CF bats.

Abstract

The majority of bat species have developed remarkable echolocation ability, especially for the laryngeally echolocating bats along with high-frequency hearing. Adaptive evolution has been widely detected for the cochleae in the laryngeally echolocating bats, however, limited understanding for the brain which is the central to echolocation signal processing in the auditory perception system, the laryngeally echolocating bats brain may also undergo adaptive changes.

In order to uncover the molecular adaptations related with high-frequency hearing in the brain of laryngeally echolocating bats, the genes expressed in the brain of Rhinolophus ferrumequinum (CF bat) and Myotis pilosus (FM bat) were both detected and also compared. A total of 346,891 genes were detected and the signal transduction mechanisms were annotated by the most abundant genes, followed by the transcription. In hence, there were 3,088 DEGs were found between the two bat brains, with 1,426 highly expressed in the brain of R. ferrumequinum, which were significantly enriched in the neuron and neurodevelopmental processes. Moreover, we found a key candidate hearing gene, ADCY1, playing an important role in the R. ferrumequinum brain and undergoing adaptive evolution in CF bats.

Our study provides a new insight to the molecular bases of high-frequency hearing in two laryngeally echolocating bats brain and revealed different nervous system activities during auditory perception in the brain of CF bats.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12864-024-10212-6.

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