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Through adaptive evolution, fruit bats have refined their penchant for sweets. Is it possible for humans to utilize techniques from their biological makeup?(Image credit: Keith Rose/iStock via Getty Images Plus)ShareShare by:
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Humans aren’t the only mammals who enjoy sugar. Fruit bats are also fond of it, consuming up to double their weight in sweet fruit each day. However, in contrast to humans, fruit bats prosper on a diet abundant in sugar. They possess the ability to decrease their glucose levels more rapidly compared to bats relying mainly on insects for nourishment.
We form a group of biologists and bioengineers. Identifying the mechanisms behind the evolution of fruit bats to excel with a high-sugar diet led us to seek an unconventional means of addressing diabetes treatment – one that took us as far as Lamanai, Belize, for the Belize Bat-a-thon, a yearly event where scientists gather and observe bats. Diabetes, the ninth highest cause of mortality in 2019, can arise when the organism struggles to process sugar efficiently, causing surplus glucose to accumulate in the bloodstream.
In our recently released study within Nature Communications, my associates Seungbyn Baek and Martin Hemberg and I employed a technique analyzing the DNA from distinct cells to evaluate the individual metabolic directives programmed within the genetic code of the Jamaican fruit bat, Artibeus jamaicensis, against those present within the genetic code of the insect-consuming big brown bat, Eptesicus fuscus.
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Roughly 2% of DNA is built from genes, which consist of sections of DNA holding the blueprints that cells use for crafting specific attributes, such as a longer tongue among fruit bats. The remaining 98% is formed by segments of DNA that govern genes, determining the presence or absence of features they code.
For the purpose of grasping how fruit bats have progressed to handle such high sugar intake, we wished to pinpoint the hereditary and cellular variations between bats whose diets consist of fruit and those which eat insects. In particular, we investigated the genes, regulatory DNA, and cell types inside two crucial organs tied to metabolic conditions: specifically, the pancreas and kidney.
The authors of this study, Nadav Ahituv (left) and Wei Gordon (right) shown beside a bat from their research
The pancreas oversees glucose levels and hunger through hormone release, like insulin, which brings down your blood sugar, as well as glucagon, which heightens it. We observed that Jamaican fruit bats possess a greater quantity of insulin-creating and glucagon-generating cells than their big brown bat counterparts, together with regulatory DNA that preps fruit bat pancreas cells for commencing insulin and glucagon generation. These two hormones coordinate to sustain steady glucose levels even when fruit bats are ingesting considerable amounts of sugar.
The kidney detoxifies metabolic residues from the bloodstream, maintains appropriate fluid and salt proportions, and controls blood pressure. The kidneys of fruit bats must have the capability to eliminate large quantities of water that originate from fruit consumption from their systems while preserving low salt levels also present in fruit. Our analysis showed that Jamaican fruit bats have adapted their kidney cell compositions in reaction to their dietary habits, diminishing the count of cells responsible for urine concentration so their urine is more water-diluted compared to big brown bats.
Why it matters
Diabetes ranks among the costliest and most widespread long-term conditions across the globe. The U.S. spent US$412.9 billion in 2022 encompassing both direct medical expenses and secondary expenses connected with diabetes.
The majority of techniques involved in crafting fresh diabetes therapies rely on common lab animals such as mice, since they breed and are analyzed readily in labs. Nonetheless, outside laboratory settings, mammals like fruit bats have naturally built up tolerances to significant sugar burdens. Gaining a clearer perspective on how such mammals handle substantial sugar exposure has the potential to enable scientists to discover fresh strategies for coping with diabetes.
By making use of novel cellular characterization technologies regarding these unconventional organisms, or organisms which aren’t routinely used by lab investigators, an expanding group of us showcase that nature can be utilized to formulate innovative treatments for illnesses.
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Catching fruit bats – YouTube
Watch On Remaining Unknowns
Despite our research showcasing numerous plausible therapeutic objectives concerning diabetes, further exploration must be conducted to corroborate if these fruit bat DNA sequences can assist in understanding, regulating, or resolving diabetes among humans.
Some findings derived from fruit bats might not relate to metabolism or may solely pertain to Jamaican fruit bats. With almost 200 species of fruit bats accounted for, additional study may help to illuminate which DNA sequences specific to fruit bats hold relevance for diabetes therapy.
Furthermore, our investigation centered on the pancreas and kidneys of bats specifically. Thorough examination of other organs involved in metabolism, similar to the liver and small intestine, would help researchers to gain a more extensive grasp of metabolic processes in fruit bats and create suitable therapies.
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Presently our group is assessing the DNA regulation sequences which allow fruit bats to ingest plentiful amounts of sugar and deciding whether to use them to better oversee how individuals react to glucose.
We’re accomplishing this by interchanging regulatory DNA sequences in mice utilizing those belonging to fruit bats, then gauging the results about how successfully these mice handle glucose levels.
This adapted piece is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons permit. Access the original publication.
TOPICSsugar
Wei Gordon
Dr. Gordon serves as an Assistant Professor of Biology at Menlo College. She has just started teaching at Menlo College this year. Dr. Gordon’s aim when entering graduate school was to become a professor for undergraduates and work within a student-centered setting. She instructed graduate courses at UC San Francisco, undergraduate courses at the University of San Francisco, San Francisco State University, and UC San Diego before acquiring her current faculty position, in addition to primary courses within San Francisco’s public schools. Dr. Gordon is focusing on raising engagement in STEM fields for underrepresented groups and bridging students with the biotechnology scene nearby at Menlo College.
Dr. Gordon’s research career commenced at the Ocean Institute situated in Dana Point, California, where she was a husbandry intern. She headed up an artificial reef colonization endeavor involving local swell sharks and launched an aquaponics exhibit created for education. Dr. Gordon later transitioned into a similar role in Dr. Deborah Yelon’s UC San Diego lab, where she transitioned to lab work exploring the growth of the zebrafish heart. Simultaneously, Dr. Gordon took on a role as a lab assistant in Dr. Maike Sander’s lab at Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine, then transitioned to an undergraduate researcher and URS (David Marc Belkin Memorial Research Scholarship for Environment and Ecology) in Dr. Amro Hamdoun’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography lab. While studying drug transporters and embryonic development within sea urchins inside Dr. Hamdoun’s lab, Dr. Gordon commenced a collaboration between the labs of Dr. Hamdoun and Dr. Yelon, pinpointing a specific cell type within zebrafish embryos that likely defends the embryonic progression from damaging small molecules (Gordon et al., Aquatic Toxicology, 2019).
As a graduate student, Dr. Gordon signed up with Dr. Nadav Ahituv’s UC San Francisco lab to research the genetic elements underpinning the evolution of frugivory (specializing in fruit) among mammals. By dissecting the DNA from mammals that have adapted to diets high in sugar, namely bats and primates, Dr. Gordon together with her collaborators aspire to identify novel DNA targets for therapies for human metabolic disorders, like diabetes. Dr. Gordon employed both comparative and functional genomics throughout her study, and also traveled to Belize to collaborate with bats and bat scientists from across the world during the “Bat-a-thon.” She was given the NSF GRFP award and also attained an NIH EDGE CMT grant with Dr. Ahituv that aided in the development of her studies. Dr. Gordon uncovered many adaptations related to fruit consumption inside the fruit bat’s kidneys and pancreas, including active genes and regulatory locations associated with electrolyte and fluid equilibrium within the frugivore kidney, plus an amplified amount of endocrine cells in addition to a reduced amount of exocrine cells inside the frugivore pancreas (Gordon and Baek et al., BioRxiv, 2023). Other studies led by Dr. Gordon will be published down the line.
Dr. Gordon’s research at Menlo College will touch upon general topics within biology instruction. She’ll be running an array of studies to assess the efficiency of certain methods, which will culminate in the establishment of innovative courses created to complement student interests as well as equip future leaders of progress in high-growth biotechnology disciplines such as gene therapy, genomics, and pharmaceutical work.
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