Laurel Yohe, Ph.D., assistant professor of bioinformatics at The University of North Carolina at Charlotte, is among the co-authors of a landmark study of bat genomes published this week in Nature. The study is the largest combined bat genome and fossil study ever undertaken. Led by the international Bat1K consortium, including 137 researchers from 64 countries, the study combined 103 bat genomes, representing every one of the 21 recognized bat families, with 44 fossil specimens. Bat1K aims to sequence the genomes of more than 1,400 living bat species. The paper is notable progress towards that goal.
The research shows that bats originated in Europe around 65 million years ago before dispersing across the globe. The work also reveals when two of the defining traits of bats — the ability to navigate by sound, known as echolocation, and powered flight — may have evolved. Now that the team had all bat “family members”, they were able to define the first reconstruction of the ancestral genome of all living bats and infer a more resolved bat family tree. These data provide molecular bases of some extraordinary characteristics, resolving disputes that have puzzled scientists for decades. For example, the researchers address the origins of echolocation. The resulting tree indicates that the evolution of echolocation occurred much earlier than previously thought and co-evolved with flight.
Yohe collected samples that helped build the genomic database. “Bats exhibit many unusual traits that we are just beginning to understand,” said Yohe. “They are flying mammals with high metabolisms that have notably low levels of inflammation, long lifespans, and harbor some of the most lethal viruses on earth. Working with Bat1K now makes it possible to test many longstanding hypotheses about bats by providing the genomic resources to search for answers. It takes a global effort to capture the true diversity of bats,” she said.
Currently working within the consortium’s sensory genomics efforts, including a collaborative study on the evolution of FOXP2, a gene linked to vocal learning, Yohe is studying how variation in the FOXP2 gene evolves with different modes of echolocation across bat species. The work builds on Yohe’s prior research into the genomic and morphological basis of chemosensation in bats, including published work on the evolution of olfactory receptor genes in Neotropical bat species with divergent diets.
Yohe’s involvement in the global effort reflects a broader mission she leads at UNC Charlotte to train the next generation of scientists to study bats and the diseases they carry. She directs an International Research Experiences for Students program, Better Access for Training Scientists, BATS, in Methods to Conserve Bats and Detect Emerging Pathogens (National Science Foundation Award No. 2505439, $449,987). Each year through IRES, Yohe sends up to eight U.S. undergraduate and graduate students to the Center for Biodiversity and Endangered Species in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. There, students sample bat biodiversity in national parks around Vietnam and use low-cost “backpack laboratory” tools to sequence molecular data and monitor pathogens found in bat populations.
The first IRES expedition launched in May 2026. Through the program, students also build science communication skills through podcasts and public outreach while gaining firsthand experience studying bats and emerging pathogens. The Bat1K research reveals the deep evolutionary roots of bats’ unusual disease tolerance, while IRES provides students with the field and research experience to study the relationship between bats and emerging pathogens. Together, this work reflects the mission of the Center for Computational Intelligence to Predict Environmental and Health Risks, CIPHER, to connect UNC Charlotte’s computational and interdisciplinary research with global science training and public health impact.
Yohe is an assistant professor in the Department of Bioinformatics and Genomics at the North Carolina Research Campus and a member of CIPHER.