Pandas "Tricked" Into Becoming the World's Biggest Bamboo Fans
taylorvich writes:
https://newatlas.com/biology/pandas-bamboo-micro-rna/
Even though they're in the animal kingdom's order of Carnivora - carnivorous species - Giant pandas spend up to 16 hours a day on their backsides eating bamboo. But contrary to the many jokes about the intelligence of these black and white bears, scientists have found that it's not because they're too dumb to know better. It's actually far more fascinating - and gives us insights into how what we eat impacts our genes.
An international team of researchers led by China West Normal University (CWNU) has found that tiny plant molecules from bamboo have infiltrated the bodies of giant pandas (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) to regulate gene expression, leading them to not just rely on but crave this vegetation.
Analysis of several bamboo species and the blood samples of seven giant pandas - three adult females, three adult males and one juvenile female - found that the animals had 57 plant-based microRNAs that bonded to the bears' RNA to directly influence a broad range of physiological mechanisms, including those related to smell, taste and even dopamine. So what may look like a tedious job, gnawing through 30 pounds of woody, bitter vegetation each day, for the pandas it could even be something that triggers pleasurable reward signals in the brain.
Like humans (and all living organisms), panda RNA (ribonucleic acid) molecules make up a hugely important part of the body's genetic code. RNA is essentially the messenger cell that instructs which proteins are made when and where - the "building blocks of life" as biologists say. One amusing way of thinking about it is that if DNA is the whole "cookbook," which never leaves the "library" of a cell, then RNA is just one recipe copied from that book, which takes these instructions to other cells to create the proteins needed.
MicroRNAs (miRNAs), on the other hand, don't make proteins but they do regulate gene expression, altering the production of those proteins when they bind to complementary mRNA molecules. The scientists in this study found 57 bamboo-derived miRNAs in the pandas' blood exosomes, influences broad physiological pathways.
This plant-to-animal ("cross-kingdom") genetic influence is, in a way, how pandas at some point got "tricked" by nature into being almost singularly focused on bamboo - and how it's been able to help sustain the survival of the species.
Read more of this story at SoylentNews.