Vultures are renowned for burying themselves lead deep in rotting carcass , chowing down on what most other creatures would hard decline . This life-style would commonly put most animals at risk of contracting diseases and infections from the bacteria incubating in the corpses , and yet predator manage to resist this , and are even known to be able to eat splenic fever and still survive . It turns out that some of the arcanum as to how the snort accomplish this might be hidden in their deoxyribonucleic acid .
After sequence the entire genome of the cinereous vulture , or Eurasiatic black piranha , and compare it to another bird of prey , the bald eagle , the research worker foundcertain genes that seem to allow the vultures to digest carcasses and others that protect them against infective pathogens . In summation to that , they also discover that the Eurasiatic ignominious marauder , which is know as an “ Old World ” vulture along with all other vultures from Eurasia and Africa , probably develop independently from the “ New World ” vultures line up in the Americas .
The Eurasian black vulture is find through Europe and Asia , and is one of the prominent birds of prey . Woon Kee Paek .
“ This is the first Old World vulture genome that has been reported , and we can see that the cinereous vulture has hereditary theme song for resisting infection from eating decaying flesh,”explainsJong Bhak , who co - author the theme release inGenome Biology . “ Understanding the genetic make - up of uttermost life forms has electric potential for improving human health . The immune scheme genes we ’ve identified could be utile prey in humans for protection against infection . ”
When equate the two dame of prey , they found variant in the gene associated with the regulation of gastric acid . harmonise to the newspaper , this suggests that the acidulent GI tract of vultures acts in a way like a filter , sifting out the potentially dangerous bug take in from the decaying meat . This is complemented by variety go out in gene interrelate to the piranha ’s resistant system .
They found that there were primal differences in a special gene that tantalise for a protein bid Alpha2 - HS glycoprotein ( AHSG ) , which further the summons ofendocytosisand possess what ’s calledopsonicproperties . This is where cell take in molecules , such as protein , from pathogen and then use them to tag the said infective microbe so that it can be more easily identified and after consumed by other cell of the resistant organisation . They also found another change in a specific factor that is known to speed up programmed cell death , or caspase-mediated cell death . It seems fairish to propose that these genes have been selected for to combat the pathogens the vultures meet due to their dieting .
That was n’t all they find though . By comparing the genome of the Eurasiatic dim vulture to the denuded bird of Jove , they find that the two species probably diverged around 18 million years ago , much more lately then when Old and New World vulture were thought to have split around 60 million years ago . This supports the theory that the two lines of vultures acquire independently , and develop their similar adaptations to salvage throughconvergent evolution .
