̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - Hannah Rowland

Opinion: Why cats are fussy eaters but dogs will consume almost anything

Anonymous — Fri, 13 Nov 2015 16:27:30 +0000

Anyone who’s watched a cat throwing up after munching on grass knows that our feline friends aren’t natural plant eaters. So you might be surprised to discover that these carnivorous animals share some important genes that are more typically associated with herbivores. And this might help explain why cats aren’t always easy to please when it comes to food.

New research suggests that cats possess the genes that protect vegetarian animals from ingesting poisonous plants by giving them the ability to taste bitter. Animals use their sense of taste to detect whether a potential food is nutritious or harmful. A sweet taste signals the presence of sugars, an important source of energy. A bitter taste, on the other hand, evolved as a defence mechanism against harmful toxins commonly found in plants and unripe fruits.

Evolution has repeatedly tweaked animals' taste buds to suit various dietary needs. Changes in an animal’s diet can eliminate the need to sense certain chemicals in food, and so receptor genes mutate, destroying their ability to make a working protein.

I can haz chlorophyll. Lisa Sympson/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA

One example of this comes from strictly meat-eating cats, who can no longer taste sweetness. But if bitter detection evolved to warn of plant toxins, then it stands to reason that cats, which (usually) eschew plants, shouldn’t be able to taste bitter either. Humans and other vegetable-munching animals can taste bitter because we possess bitter taste receptor genes. If cats have lost the ability to taste bitterness, we should find that their receptor genes are riddled with mutations.

Geneticists at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia scoured the genome of cats and other carnivorous mammals like dogs, ferrets, and polar bears to see if our carnivorous cousins have bitter genes. They were surprised to find that cats have 12 different genes for bitter taste. Dogs, ferrets, and polar bears are equally well endowed. So, if meat eating animals are unlikely to encounter any bitter morsels, why do they boast genes for tasting bitterness?

Taste test

To find out, Peihua Jiang, a molecular biologist at Monell, put cat taste buds to the test. He inserted the cat taste receptor gene into human tissue cells in the lab. When combined, the cell and the gene act as a taste receptor that responds to chemicals dropped onto it.

Jiang discovered that the cat’s taste receptors responded to bitter chemicals found in toxic plants and to compounds that also activate human bitter receptors. ̽��ֱ��cat bitter taste receptor, known as Tas2r2, responded to the chemical denatonium benzoate, a bitter substance commonly smeared on the fingernails of nail-biting children.

So why have cats retained the ability to detect bitter tastes? Domestic cats owners know how unpredictable cats' dietary choices can be. Some of the “presents” cats bring to their owners include frogs, toads, and other animals that can contain bitter and toxic compounds in their skin and bodies. Jiang’s results show that bitter receptors empower cats to detect these potential toxins, giving them the ability to reject noxious foods and avoid poisoning.

Hair of the dog. Michal Hrabovec/Flickr, CC BY-NC-SA

But how often do meat-loving cats actually get exposed to bitter and toxic compounds in their diet, compared with the plethora of plant toxins that their vegetarian counterparts have to contend with? Jiang suggests this is not enough to explain why cats have retained such an arsenal of receptors.

Instead, cat taste receptors may have evolved for reasons other than taste. In humans, bitter taste receptors are found not only in the mouth, but also in the heart and in the lungs, where they are thought to detect infections. It remains to be seen if feline bitter receptor genes also double-up as disease detectors.

̽��ֱ��discovery of feline bitter receptors might explain why cats have got a reputation as picky eaters. But their unfussy canine counterparts have a similar number of bitter taste receptors – so why are cats so finicky? One answer might lie in how the cat receptors detect bitter-tasting compounds. Research published earlier this year by another team of researchers showed that some of the cat taste receptors are especially sensitive to bitter compounds, and even more sensitive to denatonium than the same receptor in humans.

Perhaps cats are also more sensitive to bitter chemicals than dogs, or they may detect a greater number of bitter compounds in their everyday diet. Food that tastes bland to us or to a dog could be an unpleasant gastronomic experience for cats. So rather than branding cats as picky, perhaps we should think of them as discerning feline foodies.

Hannah Rowland, Lecturer in Ecology and Evolution & Research Fellow at Zoological Society of London, ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge

This article was originally published on ̽��ֱ��Conversation. Read the original article.

̽��ֱ��opinions expressed in this article are those of the individual author(s) and do not represent the views of the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge.

Hannah Rowland (Department of Zoology) discusses why different animals have different tastes when it comes to food.

Robert W. Howington

Hank ̽��ֱ��Cat Eating Tuna Fish

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Women’s faces get redder at ovulation, but human eyes can’t pick up on it

fpjl2 — Tue, 30 Jun 2015 18:01:38 +0000

Previous studies have shown that men find female faces more attractive when the women are ovulating, but the visual clues that allow this are unclear. Now, new research investigating whether it might be to do with subtle changes in skin colour has shown that women’s faces do increase in redness during ovulation, but the levels of change are just under the detectable range of the human eye.

Researchers say this may mean that facial redness in females was once an involuntary signal for optimal fertility, but has since been “dampened” by evolution as it is more beneficial for females to hide or control outward signs of peak fertility.

Involuntarily signalling ovulation can prevent longer-term investment from males. In primate species that advertise ovulation, males only express sexual interest in females when they appear to be fertile. In humans, ovulation is less conspicuous and sexual behaviour is not restricted to the period of peak fertility.

̽��ֱ��research, published today in the open-access journal PLOS ONE, is the most complete objective study of female faces during the ovulatory cycle, say researchers. Twenty-two women were photographed without make-up at the same time every working day for at least one month in the same environment and using a scientific camera modified to more accurately capture colour (usually used for studying camouflage in wildlife).

A computer programme was designed to select an identical patch of cheek from each photograph. ̽��ֱ��participants also self-tested for hormone changes at key times dictated by the research team’s “period maths”.

A surge in luteinising hormone told researchers that ovulation would occur in roughly the next 24 hours, so they knew which photographs were taken when the women were most fertile. ̽��ֱ��team converted the imagery into red/green/blue (RGB) values to measure colour levels and changes.

They found that redness varied significantly across the ovulatory cycle, peaking at ovulation and remaining high during the latter stages of the cycle after oestrogen levels have fallen. Skin redness then dips considerably once menstruation begins. ̽��ֱ��research suggests facial redness closely maps fluctuations in body temperature during the cycle.

However, when running the results through models of human visual perception, the average difference in redness was 0.6 units. A change of 2.2 units are needed to be detectable to the naked human eye.

“Women don’t advertise ovulation, but they do seem to leak information about it, as studies have shown they are seen as more attractive by men when ovulating,” said Dr Hannah Rowland, from the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge’s Zoology Department, who led the study with Dr Robert Burriss, a psychologist from Northumbria ̽��ֱ��.

“We had thought facial skin colour might be an outward signal for ovulation, as it is in other primates, but this study shows facial redness is not what men are picking up on - although it could be a small piece of a much larger puzzle,” she said.

Primates, including humans, are attracted to red, say the study’s authors. Women may subconsciously augment the naturally-occurring facial redness during ovulation through make-up such as blusher or red clothing, they say.

“As far back as the 1970s, scientists were speculating that involuntary signals of fertility such as skin colour changes might be replaced with voluntary signals, such as clothing and behaviour,” said Burriss. “Some species of primate advertise their fertility through changes in the colour of their faces. Even if humans once advertised ovulation in this way, it appears that we don’t anymore.”

It may be that, during ovulation, women have a greater propensity for blushing when around men they find attractive, say the researchers. “Other research has shown that when women are in the fertile phase of their cycle they are more flirtatious and their pupils dilate more readily, but only when they are thinking about or interacting with attractive men,” said Burriss. “We will need to do more research to find out if skin redness changes in the same way”.

Rowland and Burriss first conceived of the experiment seven years ago, but it wasn’t until Rowland arrived at Cambridge that they were able to do the research, thanks to the ̽��ֱ��’s collegiate system. “We were able to recruit undergraduates in a number of colleges and photograph the women just before they had dinner in the college hall every evening. ̽��ֱ��collegiate routines and networks were vital to collecting data with such regularity,” said Rowland.

Past research shows men find female faces more attractive at peak fertility. A new study shows an increased redness of women’s face skin at the most fertile point of ovulatory cycle, but just under the threshold for detectability, ruling out skin colouration as a driver of the attractiveness effect.

Women don’t advertise ovulation, but they do seem to leak information about it

Hannah Rowland

Greg Peverill-Conti

Faces

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