Lions, like moggies,
don't like sweets
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They are the
supermodels of the animal world, shunning sweet food in
favor of the feline version of the Atkins diet.
Now, scientists have discovered why
cats prefer dining on meat and fish - they cannot detect
sugary foods due to a defect in a key taste receptor gene.
Molecular analysis shows big cats also
have the faulty gene, and this probably helped shape the
evolution of their carnivorous behavior.
The research is published in the
journal known as PLoS Genetics.
It has been a mystery for years why
domestic cats, along with lions, tigers, leopards and
jaguars, dislike sweet-tasting foods.
This is unusual in mammals, so US and
UK scientists decided to look at whether the genes coding
for the receptor that detects sugars and sweeteners might be
defective in cats.
Our world
They looked at the two cat
sweet-receptor genes to see if there were any "mistakes" in
the DNA code.
"Lo and behold, there was a defect,"
said Leslie Stein of the Monell Chemical Senses Center in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US.
Low carbs cat: On the
prowl for protein
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"The reason that they don't care about
sweet foods is because they can't taste them. Sweet taste is
meaningless to them."
This makes sense in evolutionary
terms, since, in the wild, cats exist on a high-protein
meat-packed diet, with very little carbohydrate.
It also shows that genetic influences
on taste play a role in food selection and nutrition, in
both humans and animals.
"We probably all have individual
variations in our taste-receptor genes," said Leslie Stein.
"We probably all have a unique way of tasting and smelling
the world."
The study in PLoS (Public Library of
Science) Genetics is collaboration with the Waltham Centre
for Pet Nutrition in Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire, UK. |