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Refuting myths about naked mole-rat biology

Naked mole-rat (Heterocephalus glaber) © Radim Šumbera

It is not uncommon that attractive or popular scientific hypotheses circulate among researchers of different scientific disciplines for a very long time, even though those hypotheses have long been refuted by specialists. It happens to biologists, physicists and other researchers across different fields of scientific enquiry. People usually think that science works like Wikipedia, that it is constantly being updated according to the latest knowledge. In reality, however, scientists are just people and tend to become fond of certain hypotheses. Once such hypothesis becomes popular, it is not always easy to get rid of.

Radim Šumbera from the Department of zoology (FSci USB) and his colleagues are fighting the deep rooted superstitions about the biology of the naked mole-rat (Heterocephalus glaber), a strange-looking African rodent which spends its whole life under griund.  It bears a number of unusual physiological adaptations that, if understood, could yield exciting applications in medicine, slowing down aging and curing cancer.

The authors of the study compiled a review of a total of 28 myths about the naked mole-rat that concern its ecophysiology, senses, social behavior, and its development and aging. They also explain how those errors arose. Today, great hopes are placed in the naked mole-rat research, as it becomes and important model organism in biomedicine. Persistent myths and inaccuracies about this animal can impede the research progress, waste valuable time and resources, and slow down the development of the research applications.

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., Averina, O., Hildebrandt, T. B. (2020). Surprisingly long survival of premature conclusions about naked mole-rat biology. Biological Reviews online 30. 11. 2020.

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