Sign in Subscribe
1 min read Nature

The Bamboo Is Running the Panda Show

A carnivore that eats almost nothing but plants and may not even have a choice. What's inside panda blood is weirder than the diet itself.
Out of Bounds

Out of Bounds

on

Giant pandas are carnivores. Their digestive system is a carnivore's digestive system. And yet they spend up to 14 hours a day eating bamboo, a plant so nutritionally poor it barely covers their energy needs. Scientists have wondered for decades why a meat-eater would lock itself into that deal. Turns out the bamboo may have had a say in the matter.

Researchers at China West Normal University found that tiny plant molecules from bamboo have infiltrated the bodies of giant pandas to regulate gene expression. Analysis of blood samples from seven giant pandas found 57 plant-based microRNAs bonded to the bears' RNA, directly influencing a broad range of physiological mechanisms, including those related to smell, taste and dopamine.

MicroRNAs, or miRNAs, are small pieces of genetic material that function like biological switches, turning genes on or off. According to lead researcher Dr. Feng Li, "miRNA in bamboo can enter giant pandas' bodies through diet, be absorbed by the intestine, enter the blood circulation, and then regulate when the giant panda's RNA transfers information." In other words, the food is rewriting the instructions.

Pandas are outwardly well adapted for eating bamboo, with pseudo-thumbs to hold the stems and strong jaws with flat teeth to crush them. But while most herbivorous mammals have elongated intestines to better digest tough plant material, pandas do not. Their gut, structurally speaking, never got the memo. Their genes, apparently, are getting it now, directly from the bamboo itself.

What may look like a tedious job, gnawing through 30 pounds (13.6 kilograms) of woody, bitter vegetation each day, could for the pandas even trigger pleasurable reward signals in the brain. The study was published in Frontiers in Veterinary Science.

The bamboo didn't adapt to the panda, it made the panda adapted to the bamboo. And the bamboo did it from the inside.

Read the full story at Nazology, March 6, 2025

Hot Take: When people choose a plant-based diet, it's a lifestyle flex. Here, a carnivore was taken hostage by a plant, biologically forced to go vegan, with dopamine as a co-conspirator.

Subscribe to our newsletter.

Be the first to know - subscribe today

Member discussion

You might also like
May 29

You Have Genes That Regrow Limbs. The Trick Is Flipping the ON Switch.

Researchers found a shared genetic switch across three species that controls limb regrowth and used it to partially restore that ability in mice via gene therapy.
1 min read
May 29

Sulfur Mollies Battle as One Body. Birds Calculate New Angles of Attack.

No individual fish makes the decision to dart; the entire shoal does. Birds hunting them developed work arounds. What does collective intelligence look like with no central brain?
2 min read
May 28

A Greenland Shark's Heart Is Scarred, Stiff, and 400 Years Old. It's Still Beating.

Inside a Greenland shark's centuries-old heart, researchers found damage that would kill most vertebrates. The shark doesn't seem to notice.
1 min read
May 28

Bird Retinas Contain No Blood Vessels. They Run on Sugar Instead.

The pecten oculi, a comb-like structure in bird eyes studied since the 1600s, is inspiring new research that could help stroke recovery.
1 min read
May 27

Giant Squid. A Faceless Eel. A Bony-Eared Assfish. All Live Four Kilometers Deep Off Australia.

Environmental DNA shed by animals in the ocean is allowing scientists to record what lives in deep sea habitats.
1 min read