by Pandas love bamboo famous, but the fluffy mammals actually have digestive systems that typical of animals that eat a meat -based diet – and Chinese scientists now think that they know why.
They say that it can influence the cautious carpentry on the high, rapidly growing plant and regulate the bears of the bears.
Pandas, who is at home in the southwest of China, spend up to 16 hours a day to devour bamboo and take a genetic material called Microrna (Mirna) into her bloodstream.
The molecule can influence how genetic information about the bodies of pandas is transferred and the way they act, said research led by China West Normal University in the province of Sichuan.
Mirna plays “a role in regulating the gene expression of giant pandas,” said Dr. Li Feng, senior author of the university, in an explanation.
Li and his colleagues found that the molecule can shape physiological processes in the bodies of pandas, including growth, biological rhythms, behavior and immune responses.
“Mirna in bamboo is also involved in the regulation of the smell, the taste and dopamine paths of giant pandas, all of which are related to their feeding habits,” he said.
The researchers believe that a baby and baton is growing up to choose the ability to choose the freshest and most nutritious bamboo, which enables them to adapt to a nutrition based on plants.
The study was based on blood samples from six adult pandas and a teenager. Under these samples, scientists recognized 57 traces of Mirnas, which were probably derived from bamboo.
They hope that the discovery of scientists can help to continue to understand the effects of vegetable Mirna on animals and possibly pave the way for the treatment or prevention of diseases, according to the study.
Although the diet of the pandas almost exclusively consists of bamboo leaves, stems and shots, about 1% of their food comes from other plants – and even meat like small rodents, according to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).
In the Chinese provinces of Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu, around 1,800 pandas live in a free wild, stewing mountain chains, says WWF.
The loss and fragmentation of habitats represents the greatest threats to wild pandas, while their lukewarm desire for reproduction has made them a challenge. When mothers are finally born, newborn pandas are extremely fragile.
In recent decades, China has drastically enlarged the efforts to save the bears and increased the number of panda reserves from 12 to 67.
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