When it comes to drinking alcohol, some of us get drunk easily, while some of us have a higher tolerance with alcohol. One of the main reasons for this is our genes. But genes are not only limited to us humans as they ar also in all living things. This means that some animals have a low tolerance for alcohol, while others have a high tolerance. A study reported at Biology Letters explains why mammals differ in their level of alcohol tolerance.
An elephant, a narwhal and a guinea pig walk into a bar. From there, things could get ugly.
All three might get drunk easily, according to a new survey of a gene involved in metabolizing alcohol. They’re among the creatures affected by 10 independent breakdowns of the ADH7 gene during the history of mammal evolution. Inheriting that dysfunctional gene might make it harder for their bodies to break down ethanol, says molecular anthropologist Mareike Janiak of the University of Calgary in Canada.
Check out the study over at ScienceNews.
(Image Credit: aiacPL/ Pixabay)
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cuz they small?
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I'll never forget seeing robins on the U of Maine campus fluttering around drunk on the alcohol from fermented European Mountain Ash tree fruit.
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