10.5061/DRYAD.WH70RXWJV
Hu, Xiangxu
0000-0002-2375-6316
Chinese Academy of Sciences
Wang, Guan
Harvard Medical School
Shan, Lei
Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Biodiversity and Biotechnology
Sun, Shuyan
Chinese Academy of Sciences
Hu, Yibo
Chinese Academy of Sciences
Wei, Fuwen
Chinese Academy of Sciences
Data from: TAS2R20 variants confer dietary adaptation to high-quercitrin
bamboo leaves in Qinling giant pandas
Dryad
dataset
2020
Qinling pandas
TAS2R20 gene
Giant pandas
dietary preferences
National Natural Science Foundation of China
https://ror.org/01h0zpd94
31670386, 31821001
Chinese Academy of Sciences
https://ror.org/034t30j35
XDB31000000
Chinese Academy of Sciences
https://ror.org/034t30j35
QYZDY-SSW-SMC019
2021-04-19T00:00:00Z
2021-04-19T00:00:00Z
en
20480 bytes
5
CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
Sensitivity to bitter tastes provides animals with an important means of
interacting with their environment and thus, influences their dietary
preferences. Genetic variants encoding functionally distinct receptor
types contribute to variation in bitter taste sensitivity. Our previous
study showed that two nonsynonymous sites, A52V and Q296H, in the TAS2R20
gene are directionally selected in giant pandas from the Qinling
Mountains, which are speculated to be the causative base-pair changes of
Qinling pandas for the higher preference for bamboo leaves in comparison
with other pandas. Here, we used functional expression in engineered cells
to identify agonists of pTAS2R20 (i.e. giant panda’s TAS2R20) and
interrogated the differences in perception in the in vitro responses of
pTAS2R20 variants to the agonists. Our results show that pTAS2R20 is
specifically activated by quercitrin and that pTAS2R20 variants exhibit
differences in the sensitivity of their response to the agonist. Compared
to pTAS2R20 in pandas from other areas, the receptor variant with A52V and
Q296H, which is most commonly found in Qinling pandas, confers a
significantly decreased sensitivity to quercitrin. We subsequently
quantified the quercitrin content of the leaves of bamboo distributed in
the Qinling Mountains, which was found to be significantly higher than
that of the leaves of bamboo from panda habitats in other areas. Our
results suggest that the decreased sensitivity to quercitrin in Qinling
pandas results in higher-quercitrin-containing bamboo leaves to be tasting
less bitter to them and thus, influences their dietary preference. This
study illustrates the genetic adaptation of Qinling pandas to their
environments and provides a fine example of the functional effects of
directional selection in the giant panda.
We quantified the contents of quercitrin in the leaves of B. fargesii and
F. qinlingensis, consumed in the diet of Qinling pandas, and in the leaves
of F. denudate and B. faberi, consumed in the diet of pandas from other
areas. The quercitrin content of F. qinlingensis leaves was the highest
among the four examined bamboo species, reaching 222.3 ng/mg, followed by
that of B. fargesii at 143.7 ng/mg. In contrast, the quercitrin contents
quantified in F. denudata and B. faberi leaves were 98.2 ng/mg and 66.4
ng/mg, respectively, which are much lower than those of the two bamboo
species sampled in the Qinling Mountains (P < 0.05).