How do Vampire Bats Adapt to Drinking Blood?

KOMPAS.com – Bat Vampires are animals that have their own peculiarities and uniqueness. Because, bat this being the only mammal that exclusively makes blood as a food source.

These bats live in South and Central America. They will hunt prey at night and then bite and draw blood from livestock or other animals.

“Blood is a terrible food source. Vampire Bat It’s really strange and amazing, even among bats, because it can survive on blood,” said Hannah Kim Frank, a bat researcher at Tulane University, who was not involved in the study. Phys.

Blood as a food source is challenging because it consists mostly of water and is low in calories.

To get the energy they need, vampire bat normal (Desmodus rotundus) had to drink blood as much as 1.4 times their body weight at each meal.

Also read: Female Vampire Bat Enjoys Blood Hunting With Her Friends

But why Vampire bats adapted to drinking bloodwhile the other 1,400 types of bats feed mostly on insects, fruit, nectar, pollen, small frogs or fish.

To find out more, Moritz Blumer of the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics in Germany and his colleagues sequenced the vampire bat genome and compared it with the genomes of 26 species. flying mammal this is another.

quote New ScientistSaturday (26/3/2022) the research team found that vampire bats were missing 13 genes found in other bats.

Some of the missing genes include 3 genes that are responsible for taste receptors that distinguish different foods.

In addition, two genes are involved in regulating blood sugar or glycemic control.

The REP15 gene that allows to increase the amount of iron is also missing. The researchers also found that vampire bats were missing a gene called CYP39A1.

Also read: Giant Vampire Bat Bone Found in Argentine Cave

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