Pandas eat bamboo instead of going with their gut. Scientists explain why
Panda Bamboo love is famous, but delicate mammals actually have digestive digestive systems for meat -based diet – Chinese scientists now believe they know the reason.
They say that overcoming the long -growing plant can affect the behavior of secret meat and regulate the feeling of bears with smell and taste.
Pandas spends a citizen in southwestern China, up to 16 hours a day in bamboo devouring, and absorbs a genetic substance called Microrna (Mirna) in the bloodstream, according to the research published on Friday in the journal Frontiers.
Research led by Western China University in Sichuan Province said the molecule can affect how genetic information is transferred through Panda bodies, which is the way they act.
Dr. Lee Feng, a great author from the university, said in a statement that Mirna plays a “role in organizing genetic expression of giant panda.”
Li and his colleagues found that the molecule could form physiological processes in panda bodies, including growth, biological rhythms, behavior and immune responses.
He said: “Mirna is also involved in bamboo in organizing the smell, taste and dopamine in the giant panda, all of which are linked to their nutrition habits.”
Researchers believe that by the time the infant panda grows, it will develop the ability to choose fresh and more nutritious bamboo, allowing them to adapt to a plant -based diet.
The study was based on blood samples of six adult pandas and event. Among those samples, scientists have discovered 57 Mirnas traces that are likely to be derived from bamboo.
They hope that the discovery will help scientists understand the effect of the Mirna plant on animals, and may pave the way for the treatment or prevention of diseases, according to the study.
Although the panda system consists almost entirely of bamboo leaves, legs and buds, about 1 % of their food comes from other plants – and even meat such as small rodents, according to the Global Wildlife Fund (WWF).
WWF says that about 1,800 pandas live in the rocking mountain ranges in Chinese provinces in Sichuan, Shuanishi and Jansu.
The loss of habitats and the fragmentation of the largest threats to wild panda, while their lukewarm desire to reproduce made its preservation challenge. When mothers eventually give birth, newborn pandas are very fragile.
China has greatly expanded the efforts to save the bears over the past decades, which strengthened the number of panda reserves from 12 to 67.
For more CNN news and newsletters, create an account on Cnn.com