Surprisingly long survival of premature conclusions about naked mole-rat biology

Stan Braude; Susanne Holtze; Sabine Begall; Julia Brenmoehl; Hynek Burda; Philip Dammann; Delphine del Marmol; Ekaterina Gorshkova; Yoshiyuki Henning; Andreas Hoeflich; Annika Höhn; Tobias Jung; Dania Hamo; Arne Sahm; Yury Shebzukhov; Radim Šumbera; Satomi Miwa; Mikhail Y. Vyssokikh; Thomas von Zglinicki; Olga Averina; Thomas B. Hildebrandt

doi:10.1111/brv.12660

Surprisingly long survival of premature conclusions about naked mole-rat biology

Stan Braude, Susanne Holtze, Sabine Begall, Julia Brenmoehl, Hynek Burda, Philip Dammann, Delphine del Marmol, Ekaterina Gorshkova, Yoshiyuki Henning, Andreas Hoeflich, Annika Höhn, Tobias Jung, Dania Hamo, Arne Sahm, Yury Shebzukhov, Radim Šumbera, Satomi Miwa, Mikhail Y. Vyssokikh, Thomas von Zglinicki, Olga AverinaThomas B. Hildebrandt

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Abstract

Naked mole-rats express many unusual traits for such a small rodent. Their morphology, social behaviour, physiology, and ageing have been well studied over the past half-century. Many early findings and speculations about this subterranean species persist in the literature, although some have been repeatedly questioned or refuted. While the popularity of this species as a natural-history curiosity, and oversimplified story-telling in science journalism, might have fuelled the perpetuation of such misconceptions, an accurate understanding of their biology is especially important for this new biomedical model organism. We review 28 of these persistent myths about naked mole-rat sensory abilities, ecophysiology, social behaviour, development and ageing, and where possible we explain how these misunderstandings came about.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	376-393
Number of pages	18
Journal	Biological Reviews
Volume	96
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1111/brv.12660
Publication status	Published - Apr 2021

Keywords

ageing
Bathyergidae
cancer
naked mole-rat
physiology
sensory biology
social behaviour
sociality
subterranean life
thermoregulation

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.1111/brv.12660

Biological Reviews - 2020 - Braude - Surprisingly long survival of premature conclusions about naked mole%E2%80%90rat biologyFinal published version, 838 KBLicence: CC BY

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Braude, S., Holtze, S., Begall, S., Brenmoehl, J., Burda, H., Dammann, P., del Marmol, D., Gorshkova, E., Henning, Y., Hoeflich, A., Höhn, A., Jung, T., Hamo, D., Sahm, A., Shebzukhov, Y., Šumbera, R., Miwa, S., Vyssokikh, M. Y., von Zglinicki, T., ... Hildebrandt, T. B. (2021). Surprisingly long survival of premature conclusions about naked mole-rat biology. Biological Reviews, 96(2), 376-393. https://doi.org/10.1111/brv.12660

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title = "Surprisingly long survival of premature conclusions about naked mole-rat biology",

abstract = "Naked mole-rats express many unusual traits for such a small rodent. Their morphology, social behaviour, physiology, and ageing have been well studied over the past half-century. Many early findings and speculations about this subterranean species persist in the literature, although some have been repeatedly questioned or refuted. While the popularity of this species as a natural-history curiosity, and oversimplified story-telling in science journalism, might have fuelled the perpetuation of such misconceptions, an accurate understanding of their biology is especially important for this new biomedical model organism. We review 28 of these persistent myths about naked mole-rat sensory abilities, ecophysiology, social behaviour, development and ageing, and where possible we explain how these misunderstandings came about.",

keywords = "ageing, Bathyergidae, cancer, naked mole-rat, physiology, sensory biology, social behaviour, sociality, subterranean life, thermoregulation",

author = "Stan Braude and Susanne Holtze and Sabine Begall and Julia Brenmoehl and Hynek Burda and Philip Dammann and {del Marmol}, Delphine and Ekaterina Gorshkova and Yoshiyuki Henning and Andreas Hoeflich and Annika H{\"o}hn and Tobias Jung and Dania Hamo and Arne Sahm and Yury Shebzukhov and Radim {\v S}umbera and Satomi Miwa and Vyssokikh, {Mikhail Y.} and {von Zglinicki}, Thomas and Olga Averina and Hildebrandt, {Thomas B.}",

note = "Funding Information: This work was supported by the Leibniz Association (SAS‐2016‐FLI‐LFV) and the Washington University in St. Louis (USA). S.Be. thanks Kai R. Caspar for his help with sourcing literature from the 19th century and discussions about diverse topics related to the biology of naked mole‐rats. S.Br. thanks E.M. Braude for help defining myths and unearthing old manuscripts. E.G. was supported by RFBR grant # 19‐34‐51030. Funding Information: This work was supported by the Leibniz Association (SAS-2016-FLI-LFV) and the Washington University in St. Louis (USA). S.Be. thanks Kai R. Caspar for his help with sourcing literature from the 19th century and discussions about diverse topics related to the biology of naked mole-rats. S.Br. thanks E.M. Braude for help defining myths and unearthing old manuscripts. E.G. was supported by RFBR grant # 19-34-51030. Open Access funding enabled and organized by ProjektDEAL Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2020 The Authors. Biological Reviews published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Cambridge Philosophical Society.",

year = "2021",

month = apr,

doi = "10.1111/brv.12660",

language = "English",

volume = "96",

pages = "376--393",

journal = "Biological Reviews",

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Braude, S, Holtze, S, Begall, S, Brenmoehl, J, Burda, H, Dammann, P, del Marmol, D, Gorshkova, E, Henning, Y, Hoeflich, A, Höhn, A, Jung, T, Hamo, D, Sahm, A, Shebzukhov, Y, Šumbera, R, Miwa, S, Vyssokikh, MY, von Zglinicki, T, Averina, O & Hildebrandt, TB 2021, 'Surprisingly long survival of premature conclusions about naked mole-rat biology', Biological Reviews, vol. 96, no. 2, pp. 376-393. https://doi.org/10.1111/brv.12660

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T1 - Surprisingly long survival of premature conclusions about naked mole-rat biology

AU - Braude, Stan

AU - Holtze, Susanne

AU - Begall, Sabine

AU - Brenmoehl, Julia

AU - Burda, Hynek

AU - Dammann, Philip

AU - del Marmol, Delphine

AU - Gorshkova, Ekaterina

AU - Henning, Yoshiyuki

AU - Hoeflich, Andreas

AU - Höhn, Annika

AU - Jung, Tobias

AU - Hamo, Dania

AU - Sahm, Arne

AU - Shebzukhov, Yury

AU - Šumbera, Radim

AU - Miwa, Satomi

AU - Vyssokikh, Mikhail Y.

AU - von Zglinicki, Thomas

AU - Averina, Olga

AU - Hildebrandt, Thomas B.

N1 - Funding Information: This work was supported by the Leibniz Association (SAS‐2016‐FLI‐LFV) and the Washington University in St. Louis (USA). S.Be. thanks Kai R. Caspar for his help with sourcing literature from the 19th century and discussions about diverse topics related to the biology of naked mole‐rats. S.Br. thanks E.M. Braude for help defining myths and unearthing old manuscripts. E.G. was supported by RFBR grant # 19‐34‐51030. Funding Information: This work was supported by the Leibniz Association (SAS-2016-FLI-LFV) and the Washington University in St. Louis (USA). S.Be. thanks Kai R. Caspar for his help with sourcing literature from the 19th century and discussions about diverse topics related to the biology of naked mole-rats. S.Br. thanks E.M. Braude for help defining myths and unearthing old manuscripts. E.G. was supported by RFBR grant # 19-34-51030. Open Access funding enabled and organized by ProjektDEAL Publisher Copyright: © 2020 The Authors. Biological Reviews published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Cambridge Philosophical Society.

PY - 2021/4

Y1 - 2021/4

N2 - Naked mole-rats express many unusual traits for such a small rodent. Their morphology, social behaviour, physiology, and ageing have been well studied over the past half-century. Many early findings and speculations about this subterranean species persist in the literature, although some have been repeatedly questioned or refuted. While the popularity of this species as a natural-history curiosity, and oversimplified story-telling in science journalism, might have fuelled the perpetuation of such misconceptions, an accurate understanding of their biology is especially important for this new biomedical model organism. We review 28 of these persistent myths about naked mole-rat sensory abilities, ecophysiology, social behaviour, development and ageing, and where possible we explain how these misunderstandings came about.

AB - Naked mole-rats express many unusual traits for such a small rodent. Their morphology, social behaviour, physiology, and ageing have been well studied over the past half-century. Many early findings and speculations about this subterranean species persist in the literature, although some have been repeatedly questioned or refuted. While the popularity of this species as a natural-history curiosity, and oversimplified story-telling in science journalism, might have fuelled the perpetuation of such misconceptions, an accurate understanding of their biology is especially important for this new biomedical model organism. We review 28 of these persistent myths about naked mole-rat sensory abilities, ecophysiology, social behaviour, development and ageing, and where possible we explain how these misunderstandings came about.

KW - ageing

KW - Bathyergidae

KW - cancer

KW - naked mole-rat

KW - physiology

KW - sensory biology

KW - social behaviour

KW - sociality

KW - subterranean life

KW - thermoregulation

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DO - 10.1111/brv.12660

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AN - SCOPUS:85094631414

SN - 1464-7931

VL - 96

SP - 376

EP - 393

JO - Biological Reviews

JF - Biological Reviews

IS - 2

ER -

Surprisingly long survival of premature conclusions about naked mole-rat biology

Abstract

Keywords

UN SDGs

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