These insects can take a horse’s dose of alcohol without consequences. All thanks to an unusual mutation.
It is said about Poles in Europe that they have strong heads, they drink a lot and often, and they cure hangovers quickly, and although the awareness of the alcohol problem in Poland is much greater than years ago, many compatriots still make it a point of honor to drink as many alcoholic beverages as possible. parties – an average Pole consumes on average 11.7 liters of pure alcohol per year. A lot of? Yes, but what if I told you that there are animals that can consume virtually unlimited doses of alcohol without side effects? These are eastern hornets that can aspire to be called the Poles of the insect world.
Not only people drink – animals also like to relax
Alcohol is an inherent part of nature. It occurs naturally as a by-product of the fermentation of sugars in fruits and plant nectar, thus forming part of the diet of some animals. For example, elephants use it very similarly to humans – eating fermented marula fruit puts them in a state of pleasant intoxication. However, for eastern hornets, alcohol is a part of everyday life and they can consume it in large quantities without suffering any negative consequences. This happens because of an unusual genetic mutation.
Alcohol as fuel
First of all, let me point out that eastern hornets do not consume alcohol for fun like elephants. They feed on fermented fruits, and the ethanol ingested in this way, thanks to its antimicrobial properties, is used to “disinfect” the carrion on which the hornet larvae feed.
These unusual insects break down alcohol so quickly that they are almost unable to get drunk. They can consume solutions with alcohol content of up to 20% without any negative impact on their behavior – only extreme concentrations of 80% can cause a slight buzzing in the hornet’s head. Researchers from Tel Aviv University will decide to investigate these relationships and draw conclusions opisano niedawno w Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Researchers captured a group of eastern hornets and honey bees from near the university, and in a laboratory setting, they administered solutions with various concentrations of ethanol, from 0 to 80 percent, to the insects. A heavy carbon isotope was added to ethanol, which decomposes into carbon dioxide when alcohol is metabolized – scientists measured the amount of CO₂ emitted by insects to assess how quickly the body processes it. They found that the hornets metabolized ethanol much faster and at a higher level than honey bees.
This impressive property is due to numerous copies of the alcohol dehydrogenase gene, which helps them quickly metabolize alcohol and keep the body sober even despite very large amounts of ethanol.
“To the best of our knowledge, eastern hornets are the only animals in nature adapted to consume alcohol as metabolic fuel. They show no signs of intoxication or illness, even after chronically consuming large amounts of alcohol, and their bodies eliminate it very quickly,” said Eran Levin of Tel Aviv University, co-author of the study.
Tree shrews (tolerate concentrations up to 3.8%) and common fruit flies (up to 4%) are also prone to excessive alcohol consumption, but in both cases, clearly exceeding the permissible dose resulted in a serious threat to life. Eastern hornets are not impressed by such doses, so we can safely consider them to be the most persistent party animals in the animal world – although we do not promote or recommend drinking alcohol under any circumstances.
Stock image from Depositphotos
Source: antyweb.pl
