"Bats: The Key to Preventing Disease X and Future Pandemics"
A Texas A&M research team has discovered that some species of bats are protected against the deadly viruses they carry due to their exchange of immune genes during seasonal mating swarms. This finding could hold the key to preventing the next global pandemic, as understanding how bats have evolved viral tolerance may help humans better fight emerging diseases. The researchers also uncovered the influence of swarming behavior and hybridization on the evolution of viral tolerance in bats, leading to new questions about the importance of hybridization in mammalian evolutionary history.