Recently, the National Germplasm Resource Bank of Domesticated Animals at Institute of Animal Science of CAAS, in collaboration with domestic universities, successfully generated interspecies chimeras of bats with chickens, mice and pigs using bat induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) without exogenous genetic remnants. This achievement provides high quality cellular resources for the study of mechanisms related to longevity, antiviral properties and echolocation in bats, which serves as experimental materials. The research has been published in Cell Discovery.

Bats, the second largest group of mammals and the only mammals with true self-propelled flight, possess biological characteristics such as longevity, antiviral capabilities, hibernation and echolocation, which have attracted much attention from researchers. However, many repetitive experiments with bats have not been possible due to the lack of reliable cellular models for bat biology research. Induced pluripotent stem cells have the ability to self-renew in vitro. High-quality induced pluripotent stem cells can differentiate into various cell types and organoids under appropriate conditions, making them excellent models for cell biology research.

In this study, an exogenous gene-free integration method was used to generate bat iPSCs. These iPSCs showed favourable in vivo chimeric potential in three model animals: mice, pigs and chickens. Notably, a high degree of chimerism was achieved in the bat-chicken interspecies chimeras, suggesting that chicken embryos serve as effective recipients for assessing the chimeric potential of exogenous stem cells. The exogenous gene-free bat iPSCs showed no preference for lineage differentiation, thus avoiding the risk of tumour formation and death in chimera offspring. This provides high quality material for the generation of bat organoids. The bat iPSC resources established by the research team will be made available to relevant research institutions and companies through the National Germplasm Resource.