Two long-lived species of bats appear to have proteins that
are especially resistant to stress, which may explain why they can outlive many
other similar-sized mammals.
According to a press release from the FASEB Journal:
[Asish Chaudhuri, a biochemist at the VA Medical Center, in San Antonio] and colleagues made their discovery by extracting proteins from the livers of two long-lived bat species (Tadarida brasiliensis and Myotis velifer) and young adult mice and exposed them to chemicals known to cause protein misfolding. After examining the proteins, the scientists found that the bat proteins exhibited less damage than those of the mice, indicating that bats have a mechanism for maintaining proper structure under extreme stress.
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