Why Scientists Made Vampire Bats Run on Treadmills

Ask a runner what they eat before a long run, and you’ll likely get a wide range of answers. Some will suggest a light snack of fruit or lean protein an hour before the race, while others advise We stocked up on pasta the night before. However, a large bowl of amino acid-rich blood is enough for vampire bats.

Researchers at the University of Toronto captured several vampire bats and trained them to run on a treadmill. By analyzing their breathing, the researchers determined that the bats primarily used amino acids contained in a recent blood supply as their main source of energy for running. These conclusions published this week in Letters in Biologysuggest that vampire bats may have evolved a unique metabolism typically seen in blood-sucking insects.

No carbs – no problem

Bats are unique among mammals, and vampires are unique among bats. The creatures that inspire horror novels survive solely on the blood of their victims. Vampire bats typically fly close to their prey and then quickly walk or run on their thumbs and wrists to get closer. They then latch onto their target, usually a peccary or capybara, and use their teeth to make a small cut to draw out the blood. When necessary, vampire bats can feed themselves and consume up to four times their body weight in fluids.

But this reliance solely on blood severely limits a vampire’s ability to harness energy. Most mammals, including humans, typically fuel exercise by burning carbohydrates and lipids that are not present or present in the blood. Blood is an abundant source of protein-building amino acids, but they typically account for only about 10% of the fuel used by mammals during exercise. Vampire bats, over several generations of evolution, changed this scenario and somehow managed to survive. first of all without amino acids. Bats are missing genes required for insulin secretion so they have no choice but to make do with what is available.

“For most animals, amino acids are the fuel of last resort,” University of Toronto Scarborough professor and study co-author Ken Welch. says the statement. “It’s what burns the body when it’s gone, but these bats burn it right away.”

Researchers taught rats to run on a treadmill

To scientifically measure this observation, the researchers captured two dozen vampire bats from Belize and trained them to use a small treadmill commonly used to measure the metabolic rate of rats. The goal of the experiment was to first feed bats cow’s blood enriched with two isotope-labeled amino acids and then measure their respiration as they ran. The researchers obtained the blood from a local slaughterhouse and fed it to the bats using a pipette. It took some time, but the researchers were eventually able to train the bats to stop jumping off the treadmill and walk, and then run at a steady pace. Some bats could run at 100 feet per second and maintain that speed for more than 90 minutes.

When the researchers measured the level of CO2 released by the bat’s breath, they were able to detect trace amounts of the same amino acids that make up the bloody feast. The breakdown of glycine and leucine, two amino acids added to the blood, is thought to be responsible for up to 60% of a bat’s total energy production during running. Ultimately, the experiment demonstrated that vampire bats could convert amino acids into energy in less than 10 minutes and use it for long-term endurance running.

This process makes vampires unique among mammals. These findings suggest that the metabolism of vampires is actually closer to that of blood-sucking tsetse flies than to that of other bat species. And while flying requires significantly more energy than running, researchers believe vampires also burn amino acids for flight.

“What’s even more impressive is that they can withstand such a really high load for a long time, burning only the proteins stored in the muscles,” Welch added. This is something we can only dream about.”