Fig. 1: Schematic of overall experimental workflow to elucidate the heat shock response in bats.

A Bats exhibit extreme core temperatures ( >40 °C) (illustrated in red dotted line) during flight as compared to mice, human and horses during exercise. Each bar indicates an independent study (Supplementary Table 1). Black square symbols indicate the average core temperatures while the lines indicate the standard deviation. The numbers indicate the n size in each study from which the temperature was derived. B The animals are subjected to an in vivo heat challenge at 42 °C for 1 h. Three terminal time points were chosen – Animals in the baseline group are not subjected to heat challenge (Ctl), immediately post heat shock (HS) and heat shock followed by 4 h of rest (HS + R). C The bat species used in this study is E. spelaea (Es), a pteropodid bat from the suborder Yinpterochiroptera, from which our group has established an active breeding colony. The mammalian comparator species used in this heat shock challenge is M. musculus (Mm), C57BL/6 J strain, a mammalian model animal used in HS studies. D Core temperature of animals assayed throughout experimental conditions (n = 4) (Supplementary Table 2). Figures were created with elements from BioRender (2025). https://BioRender.com/0fcvmt1.