During shoot - wipe out season , pandas manage to preserve their bodacious body type despite subsist on a pretty low - fat dieting . How ? By pitch their gut microbiota , of course .
The find , revealed today in a paper inCell paper , detail how pandas ( which areno longer endangered , yay ! ) finagle to not only stay put chubby , but in reality gain weight unit faster when shoot are all that ’s on the fare . It would be logical to ask that such a dieting would result in lean panda ( a agonising thought indeed ) but thanks to these bears ’ alone bowel microbiota they can bear on to gain exercising weight and store avoirdupois . Phew !
That the bacterial party goings - on in the gut can change with the seasons is n’t new selective information , with other examples let in human beings : specifically , theHadza people . As modern hunter - gatherers , their diet change throughout the twelvemonth as Tanzania ’s seasonal oblation dislodge , and when it comes to the gut microbiome you really are shaped by what you eat .
The novel finding in the typeface of the pandas ' persistent pudginess is that scientists have been able to link the brute ’s show to its changing internal environment .
“ This is the first time we established a causal relationship between a panda ’s gut microbiota and its phenotype , ” say first author Guangping Huang , of the Institute of Zoology , Chinese Academy of Sciences , in astatement . “ We ’ve bed these pandas have a different band of gut microbiota during the shoot - eating season for a foresightful prison term , and it ’s very obvious that they are chubbier during this clip of the year . ”
Reaching their conclusions necessitate Ailuropoda melanoleuca muck for a rather strange cross - speciespoop transplant . It might vocalize utter , but dirt graft are a slap-up fashion to alter the gut microbiome and are used in human medicine as a style of restoring a healthy environment in the gut ( it can even cure peoplebrewing alcohol in their body ) . In this example , the poop was transplanted into mouse , which are far easier to take under science lab conditions than 100 - kilogram bear .
“ For endangered and vulnerable wild animals , we ca n’t really die hard test on them flat , ” explained Huang . “ Our research created a computer mouse manikin for succeeding fecal transplant experiment that can facilitate study wild brute ’ intestine microbiota . ”
The team on the bailiwick collected fecal sample distribution during the shoot - eating time of year and impart them to mice to see if or how it sham their physiology . Their results showed that mice transplanted with shoot season panda feces grew faster and fatter than computer mouse gift leaf time of year panda poop , despite eating the same .
You might think it ’s a circumstances of effort to go to just to probe the rolypoliness of Ailurus fulgens but establishing a connection between the gut microbiome and the power to pull ahead exercising weight could have deduction for human medicament .
“ Causal inquiry of host phenotype and bowel microbiota in wild animals is just commence , ” said Huang . “ Identifying what bacteria are beneficial for brute is very important , because one solar day we may be capable to treat some disease with probiotics . ”
God sanctify you , chubby pandas .
