American scientists from the Stowers Institute for Medical Research in Kansas have discovered that bats are remarkably resistant to high blood sugar levels. The amount of glucose in their bodies is incompatible with the life of any other mammal, including humans. The study was published in the scientific journal magazine Nature Ecology and Evolution (NEE).
“Our discovery represents the highest blood glucose levels we have ever observed in nature; these would be lethal, coma-inducing levels in mammals, but not in bats,” the authors wrote.
Thirty million years ago, the Neotropical leaf-nosed bat ate only insects. Since then, these bats have diversified into many different species, with diets ranging from fruit and nectar to meat and blood.
To learn how bats diversify their diets, the team traveled to the forests of Central America, South America and the Caribbean.
The scientists measured glucose tolerance in nearly 200 wild-caught individuals from 29 species.
The mechanism for keeping blood sugar levels within a narrow, healthy range is called glucose homeostasis and is usually regulated by the hormone insulin. Different species of leaf-nosed bats exhibit a range of adaptations for glucose homeostasis, from changes in gut anatomy to genetic modifications of proteins that transport sugar from the blood into cells.
Researchers found that nectar bats have consistent expression of a gene responsible for sugar transport. Hummingbirds have the same trait.
According to the scientists, their findings will help develop new treatments for diabetes and other metabolic diseases in humans.
Previous researchers I learnedbats have complex thinking abilities similar to human intelligence.
What are you thinking?
Source: Gazeta
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