Chronic intake of fermented floral nectar by wild treeshrews
Chronic intake of fermented floral nectar by wild treeshrews
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DOI：
10.1073/pnas.0801628105
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发表时间：
2008-07-29
影响因子：
11.1
通讯作者：
Spanagel, Rainer
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Wiens, Frank;Zitzmann, Annette;Spanagel, Rainer
对人类来说，饮酒往往会带来毁灭性的后果。野生哺乳动物也可能受到食物中酒精的行为和生理挑战。在这里，我们提供了一个详细的说明慢性酒精摄入的哺乳动物与植物的共同进化关系的一部分。我们发现，七种哺乳动物在马来西亚西部的雨林消耗酒精花蜜每天从花蕾的bertam棕榈（Eugeissona tristis），他们授粉。我们记录的3.8%的最大酒精浓度（平均值：0.6%;中位数：0.5%）是有史以来报道的天然食品中最高的。花蜜中的酒精含量很高，这是由专门的花蕾促进的，花蕾中含有发酵酵母菌群，其中包括几种科学上的新物种。长尾树鼩（Ptilocercus lowii）经常从花序中摄取酒精剂量，这会使人类中毒。然而，访花的哺乳动物没有表现出中毒的迹象。对他们头发中的酒精代谢物（乙基葡萄糖醛酸苷）的分析显示，其浓度高于酒精摄入量相似的人类。五足树鼩被认为是已灭绝哺乳动物的活模型，代表了所有已灭绝和现存的树鼩和灵长类动物的祖先。因此，我们假设，中度至高度酒精摄入量是目前在这些密切相关的谱系进化的早期。目前还不清楚树鼩从摄入的酒精中获益的程度，以及它们如何减轻持续高血液酒精浓度的风险。
For humans alcohol consumption often has devastating consequences. Wild mammals may also be behaviorally and physiologically challenged by alcohol in their food. Here, we provide a detailed account of chronic alcohol intake by mammals as part of a coevolved relationship with a plant. We discovered that seven mammalian species in a West Malaysian rainforest consume alcoholic nectar daily from flower buds of the bertam palm (Eugeissona tristis), which they pollinate. The 3.8% maximum alcohol concentration (mean: 0.6%; median: 0.5%) that we recorded is among the highest ever reported in a natural food. Nectar high in alcohol is facilitated by specialized flower buds that harbor a fermenting yeast community, including several species new to science. Pentailed treeshrews (Ptilocercus lowii) frequently consume alcohol doses from the inflorescences that would intoxicate humans. Yet, the flower-visiting mammals showed no signs of intoxication. Analysis of an alcohol metabolite (ethyl glucuronide) in their hair yielded concentrations higher than those in humans with similarly high alcohol intake. The pentailed treeshrew is considered a living model for extinct mammals representing the stock from which all extinct and living treeshrews and primates radiated. Therefore, we hypothesize that moderate to high alcohol intake was present early on in the evolution of these closely related lineages. It is yet unclear to what extent treeshrews benefit from ingested alcohol per se and how they mitigate the risk of continuous high blood alcohol concentrations.