Why is it in news?

Bats are the longest-lived mammals relative to body size, and a species called the greater mouse-eared bat lives especially long. Researchers now have unlocked some of this bat's longevity secrets, with hints for fighting the effects of aging in people.

Details

• Scientists said that unlike in people and most other animals, in the bat Myotis the structures called telomeres located at the end of chromosomes(thread-like strands inside a cell's nucleus that carry genes determining heredity) do not shorten with age.
• Only 19 mammal species are longer-lived than humans relative to body size. Eighteen of them are bats, some living more than four decades. The other is a weird African rodent called a naked mole rat.
• The researchers identified two genes in the greater mouse-eared bat that may be responsible for its unique longevity adaptation. These mechanisms could be the focus of future studies on aging, with an eye toward extending healthy lifespans in people.
• Telomeres are protective caps at the ends of chromosomes that shorten each time a cell divides. This drives the natural aging process, leading to a breakdown of cells that over time can drive tissue deterioration and eventually death.
• Out of all test subjects, the greater mouse-eared bat and the closely related Bechstein's bat had telomeres that did not shorten with age, suggesting that Myotis bats share this characteristic. Another Myotis bat, Brandt's bat, holds the bat longevity record of 41 years.

Conclusion

Gaining immortality and prolonging longevity of human life has always been a fascinating topic for people around the world. This fascination has led to several researches in order to find the reasons of ageing and ways and means to stop it. This research is a constructive step in understanding and studying the phenomenon of ageing. Given the pace of research on this topic around the world, it won’t be surprising that some effective solution would be developed in a few years’ time.

Source

The Hindu, Livemint