Wounds and the origin of blood-feeding in bats

Fenton, M. Brock

doi:10.1111/j.1095-8312.1992.tb00662.x

Cited by 26 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…Detected arthropods are therefore likely ectoparasites ingested during grooming (Aguirre, Herrel, & Van Damme, ; Greenhall, ). However, it is also conceivable that ectoparasites might be ingested while the bats feed from vertebrate prey, which if confirmed, would support the hypothesis that blood feeding in vampire bats might have evolved from a previous specialization on ectoparasitic arthropods of larger animals (Arata et al., ; Fenton, ; Gillette, ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 78%

Using DNA metabarcoding for simultaneous inference of common vampire bat diet and population structure

Bohmann

Gopalakrishnan

Nielsen

et al. 2018

Molecular Ecology Resources

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Metabarcoding diet analysis has become a valuable tool in animal ecology; however, co‐amplified predator sequences are not generally used for anything other than to validate predator identity. Exemplified by the common vampire bat, we demonstrate the use of metabarcoding to infer predator population structure alongside diet assessments. Growing populations of common vampire bats impact human, livestock and wildlife health in Latin America through transmission of pathogens, such as lethal rabies viruses. Techniques to determine large‐scale variation in vampire bat diet and bat population structure would empower locality‐ and species‐specific projections of disease transmission risks. However, previously used methods are not cost‐effective and efficient for large‐scale applications. Using bloodmeal and faecal samples from common vampire bats from coastal, Andean and Amazonian regions of Peru, we showcase metabarcoding as a scalable tool to assess vampire bat population structure and feeding preferences. Dietary metabarcoding was highly effective, detecting vertebrate prey in 93.2% of the samples. Bats predominantly preyed on domestic animals, but fed on tapirs at one Amazonian site. In addition, we identified arthropods in 9.3% of samples, likely reflecting consumption of ectoparasites. Using the same data, we document mitochondrial geographic population structure in the common vampire bat in Peru. Such simultaneous inference of vampire bat diet and population structure can enable new insights into the interplay between vampire bat ecology and disease transmission risks. Importantly, the methodology can be incorporated into metabarcoding diet studies of other animals to couple information on diet and population structure.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 78%

Using DNA metabarcoding for simultaneous inference of common vampire bat diet and population structure

Bohmann

Gopalakrishnan

Nielsen

et al. 2018

Molecular Ecology Resources

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“…B 281: 20141079 mutations, and T2R3 and T2R38 contain disruptive mutations in one of the three vampire bats, suggesting that the four genes were pseudogenized independently. Therefore, we found extensive losses of T2Rs in vampire bats, but the common disruptive mutations that cause pseudogenization among all three vampire bats are absent, despite them sharing a common ancestry of blood-feeding [9,30,31].…”

Section: (B) Pseudogenization Of Bitter Taste Receptor Genes In Vampimentioning

confidence: 84%

“…All three vampire bats are obligate feeders on mammalian or bird blood [30], a food type that is unlikely ever to be bitter or toxic to these animals. This highly specialized diet with extremely narrow components would result in extensive reduction of bitter taste function in vampire bats, which would never encounter toxic foods in nature, despite many natural toxins tasting bitter [4,5].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Vampire bats exhibit evolutionary reduction of bitter taste receptor genes common to other bats

Hong

Zhao

2014

Proc. R. Soc. B.

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The bitter taste serves as an important natural defence against the ingestion of poisonous foods and is thus believed to be indispensable in animals. However, vampire bats are obligate blood feeders that show a reduced behavioural response towards bitter-tasting compounds. To test whether bitter taste receptor genes (T2Rs) have been relaxed from selective constraint in vampire bats, we sampled all three vampire bat species and 11 non-vampire bats, and sequenced nine one-to-one orthologous T2Rs that are assumed to be functionally conserved in all bats. We generated 85 T2R sequences and found that vampire bats have a significantly greater percentage of pseudogenes than other bats. These results strongly suggest a relaxation of selective constraint and a reduction of bitter taste function in vampire bats. We also found that vampire bats retain many intact T2Rs, and that the taste signalling pathway gene Calhm1 remains complete and intact with strong functional constraint. These results suggest the presence of some bitter taste function in vampire bats, although it is not likely to play a major role in food selection. Together, our study suggests that the evolutionary reduction of bitter taste function in animals is more pervasive than previously believed, and highlights the importance of extra-oral functions of taste receptor genes.

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“…The dentition of many bats is relatively generalized (Romer, 1966;Slaughter, 1970), perhaps implying that the loss or breakage of speci®c teeth may be less critical for survival. There is, however, a range of specialization in their canine teeth (Freeman, 1992) and the enamel-less, blade-like upper incisors of vampire bats (Greenhall, 1988) are highly specialized (Fenton, 1992).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tooth breakage and diet: a comparison of bats and carnivorans

Fenton¹,

Waterman²,

Roth³

et al. 1998

J. Zoology

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Species of carnivorans that eat bone are believed to break teeth more often than those eating mainly meat. Two predictions that arise from this hypothesis are that bats, which do not eat bone, will have a lower incidence of broken teeth than carnivorans and that smaller carnivorans, which often feed heavily on arthropods and other insects, will exhibit less tooth damage than larger carnivorans. We found no difference between bats and carnivorans in the proportion of skulls with broken or missing teeth in a sample including 10 species of carnivorans from ermines to bears, and 13 species of bats including some that eat insects, fruit, nectar and pollen, and blood. When the sample is expanded to include larger carnivorans studied by Van Valkenburgh (1988), there is a signi®cant difference in the incidence of tooth breakage, indicating that the selection of species in the sample affects the results. Tooth breakage was strongly in¯uenced by body size in carnivorans but not in bats. This evidence suggests that factors other than diet in¯uence tooth breakage in mammals. We propose that lifespan, which increases with body size in carnivorans but not in bats, is a better predictor of tooth breakage than diet.

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Wounds and the origin of blood-feeding in bats

Cited by 26 publications

References 30 publications

Using DNA metabarcoding for simultaneous inference of common vampire bat diet and population structure

Using DNA metabarcoding for simultaneous inference of common vampire bat diet and population structure

Vampire bats exhibit evolutionary reduction of bitter taste receptor genes common to other bats

Tooth breakage and diet: a comparison of bats and carnivorans

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