By Helen BriggsBBC Environment correspondent. Prof Emma Teeling of University College Dublin said the "exquisite" genome sequences they have unravelled suggest bats have "unique immune systems". -- into the air all night long," said Daszak, who did not take part in this research. "Imagine doing a 100-yard dash every night all night long, or imagine lifting your body weight -- 150 lbs., 200 lbs. "Bats plays a key role in controlling mosquitos and other insects, which are vectors of many important pathogens.". ', Why 2021 could be turning point for tackling climate change, playThe train carriage for stray pets. 's Last Christmas goes to number one for the first time, TikTok faces legal action from 12-year-old girl in England, Wall Street to kick out Chinese telecom giants, Iran nuclear crisis: Tehran to enrich uranium to 20%, UN says, Omar Elabdellaoui: Norway star hurt by firework on New Year's Eve, Australia-China row: 'I'm Australian - why do I need to prove my loyalty? Fruit bats don't just eat and run. Charles Q. Choi is a science reporter who has written for Scientific American, The New York Times, Wired, Science, Nature, and National Geographic News, among others. The exact amount of time depends in part on the bat's size, species, the time of year and whether it is nursing its young. Wing shape, governed by the relative lengths of the forearm and the fingers, varies greatly, in adaptation to flight characteristics. The wingspan of the two most common Canadian species (the little brown bat and the big brown bat) ranges from 20 to 35 cm (8 to 14 inches), though some can be larger. "These genomes are the tools needed to identify the genetic solutions evolved in bats that ultimately could be harnessed to alleviate human ageing and disease," she said. 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All in all, these new findings revealed bats evolved strategies to tamp down their inflammatory responses at multiple levels, some of which might have evolved independently several times. virologist Lin-Fa Wang at Duke-National University of Singapore Medical School. said disease ecologist Peter Daszak, president of the EcoHealth Alliance. They see as well as a cat at night and are just about as smart. Behavioral Adaptations The very long wings of the fruit bat do much more than just fly. Researchers hope to use the information to crack the secrets of how bats carry coronaviruses without getting sick. In the new study, Wang and his colleagues introduced the genes for human AIM2-like receptors into bat kidney and immune cells grown in lab dishes. Bats appear most closely related to a group that consists of carnivores (dogs, cats and seals, among other species), pangolins, whales and ungulates (hooved mammals). 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