主要研究 今天

了解动物如何在严酷环境中生存, water-limited environments will be critical to sustaining life across a rapidly warming and drought-prone climate. 联合国大学的研究人员求助于一位专家——一位矮小、谦逊的专家 仙人掌的鼠标 (选择eremicus), which has evolved as a desert survivalist—to identify strategies and adaptations that could be used by other animals, 也可能是人类, 以适应新罕布什尔州和更远地区不断变化的气候.

马修MacManes他是加州大学的基因组生物学副教授 主要研究生命科学与农业学院, 达尼Blumstein，应届毕业生 主要研究分子和进化系统生物学博士课程, 发表了他们最近的发现 实验生物学杂志. They describe how male and female cactus mice respond to periods of water deprivation—modeling conditions that are increasingly observed in the mice’s natural habitat.

研究人员发现，为了在干旱的沙漠条件下生存, the cactus mice reduced water loss by decreasing food intake and lowering the amount of overall energy they exerted. This strategy is called dehydration anorexia in which water stored in the gastrointestinal tract that aids in digestion is no longer needed and instead absorbed and retained by the animal, 提高对缺水的耐受性. 食物摄入量的减少也意味着消化酶所需的水分减少, 以及通过尿液排出废物.

“我们想确定我们发现的对脱水的反应, 比如体温调节, dehydration-related厌食症, 还有其他策略, are specific desert adaptation and are present only in desert specialists – rather than being a more general trait of all rodents.——达尼Blumstein, 24岁

另外, the researchers noted a difference in how the female cactus mice responded compared to the male mice. While the female mice decreased their body temperatures during water deprivation, 雄性保持了它们的体温, 可能保持最佳的精子产量和生殖潜力.

“我们想确定我们发现的对脱水的反应, 比如体温调节, dehydration-related厌食症, 还有其他策略, are specific desert adaptation and are present only in desert specialists – rather than being a more general trait of all rodents,布卢姆斯坦说, a current postdoctoral researcher at the University of Denver and the University of Massachusetts Amherst, 谁在主要研究共同领导了这项研究. “为了将来的研究, 麦克马尼斯实验室将重点研究非沙漠适应物种, furthering the understand and the degree of intervention needed to preserve non-adapted populations affected by climate change.”

为了下一阶段的研究, Blumstein and MacManes are studying how the response of cactus mice to dehydration affects the species at the genetic level. 这项研究着眼于与水分保持有关的基因, 以及对食物摄入减少做出反应的基因.

“因为哺乳动物共享很大一部分基因组, we can compare notable genes in the cactus mice genome to the same gene in humans and determine similarities and differences,麦克马尼斯说.

根据Blumstein的说法, 鉴于我们目前预测的气候变化模式, 许多物种可能会面临更高的温度和更干旱的气候, 紧张的环境.

正因为如此, our findings are much more applicable to humans and other organisms that are likely to suffer physiological stress related to new conditions on our changing planet,她补充道。.

这项研究得到了 国立普通医学科学研究所 (R35 GM128843给马修MacManes).

这项研究由Danielle Blumstein和马修MacManes共同撰写.