The Genes Vampires Lost

According to a preprint, the common vampire bat lacks 13 genes present in other bat species, which may help explain their blood-only diet and other curious aspects of their lifestyle.

Written byAlejandra Manjarrez, PhD

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ABOVE: Common vampire bats (Desmodus rotundus)
© ISTOCK.COM, MICHEL VIARD

Update (March 28, 2022): This study was published in Science Advances on March 25.

Vampire bats have an extravagant diet. As their name suggests, they feed exclusively on blood from other animals that they hunt in the dark. Getting all of their nutrients from this gory source is not easy, though. Blood is rich in protein, but notably light on fat and sugars. Previous studies, including an earlier reference genome, have sought to understand how vampire bats adapted to live off this peculiar diet, but an analysis of a new, even more complete and accurate genome sequence for the species, uploaded as a preprint to bioRxiv October 19, lends new insights into this question.

Comparing the newly assembled, reference-quality genome of the common vampire bat (Desmodus rotundus)—one of the three extant vampire bat species—to 25 genomes for other kinds of bats ...

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Meet the Author

Alejandra Manjarrez, PhD
Alejandra Manjarrez is a freelance science journalist who contributes to The Scientist. She has a PhD in systems biology from ETH Zurich and a master’s in molecular biology from Utrecht University. After years studying bacteria in a lab, she now spends most of her days reading, writing, and hunting science stories, either while traveling or visiting random libraries around the world. Her work has also appeared in Hakai, The Atlantic, and Lab Times.
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