"Back off" says one bat to the other

Greed, survival or just effective communication? A recent report in Current Biology shows that male big brown bats send a call to other males to warn them to stay away from their food.

Relying on visual cues is obviously not an effective means of communication for animals that search for food in the dark, like bats. The particular species of bat investigated in this study, Eptesicus fuscus, forages for insects at night and is known to emit social calls to other big brown bats. While the authors were investigating bat behaviour in the presence of prey, they identified a call emitted only by male bats, which they termed frequency-modulated bout (FMB), that was slightly different: a sequence of 3-4 four calls that are longer than typical ultrasonic bat calls.

What was more intriguing, however, was that FMBs were primarily heard when two male bats that were experienced in foraging were competing for prey. Notably, as a result of the emission of FMBs from the calling bat, other bats changed their flight path, increasing their distance from the calling bat and, importantly, from the prey, indicative of abandoning attempts to catch it. So, by sending out the FMB call, bats became more successful at capturing their prey.

This is not really the type of paper that I am normally drawn to, but it seems fascinating that this social call is in stark contrast to what we normally think of animal calls, ie vocalisations that attract other members of the same species by notifying them of the availability of food. Or perhaps it is the bat-vampire link!

REST saves the day in the ageing brain

One of the topics that my family, especially the older members, always seem to ask me about is Alzheimer's disease and dementia - no one really wants to grow old and at the same time lose touch with reality and themselves. But we really don't seem to know a lot about how our brain protects itself during ageing to explain why this goes wrong in Alzheimer's disease.

So I was intrigued by a paper in Nature from last week, which identified a protein, called REST, that seems to have a key role in protecting against neurodegeneration during ageing.

Image  from https://www.flickr.com/photos/lizhenry/2051224366/sizes/s/

Another role for our bacterial masters

Now that I no longer have access to academic papers at whim, I am starting to understand the frustration of those advocating for open access. But I still have my ways, and came across an exciting new story on the gut microbiota in Cell Host Microbe.

If you haven't heard, the gut microbiota (ie the bacteria that naturally live in our gut) is one of the most exciting topics in biology at the moment. In the past decade, it has become clear that we are in fact a 'superorganism', as it is both our genes and the genes of the bacteria that live within us that shape who we are. We are slowly uncovering the numerous roles the gut microbiota has, from regulating the responses of our immune system to controlling the development of our blood vessels, our metabolism and even our behaviour. If you are interested and have access, here is an excellent review  and a viewpoint  article on the topic (ahem, commissioned by me during my Nature Reviews Microbiology days).

3D model of intestinal cells colonised with gut bacteria. Image from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory obtained on Flickr (https://www.flickr.com/photos/pnnl/8146322408)

And now a study has shown that the gut microbiota doesn't just shape our immune responses, it actually regulates the production of the immune cells that fight pathogens.

Dipping my toe with an immunology blast from the past

You may not know this, but this owlette is a (reformed) scientist. As I have missed looking through cool papers and writing about them, I have decided to take a stab at writing a little science blog here (I have yet to decide on the tone, perhaps it will depend on the paper).

And what best way to start than with a paper from my former lab that I saw this morning in Nature Communications. I realise that I am probably shooting myself in the foot, as this is quite a complicated paper on immunology, a discipline that everyone seems to be scared of and find incredibly confusing. But I never said I didn't like jumping in the deep end! I promise, it is a cool story and I will try and keep it simple.

The immune system is actually a beautifully complicated network of cells (including various types of T cells, B cells, dendritic cells etc) that travel around the highways of the blood stream and lymphatic system to fight infection. It is true, through the years it has become increasingly complicated with the different cell types discovered (bordering on the ridiculous now, I have lost track). But ask any immunologist and they will declare their undying love for their favourite cell type.

How could you not love this T cell beauty? Image from NIAID (https://www.flickr.com/photos/niaid/5950870236/)