New Paper out in Science!

Many mammalian herbivores face the daily risk of being poisoned by their food. How do they overcome this dietary challenge? In our recent study jointly led by Postdoctoral Fellows Dylan Klure and Robert Greenhalgh, we find that two species of herbivorous woodrats have rapidly adapted to feed on a highly toxic plant (creosote bush) using similar mechanisms. The genomes of both woodrat species have undergone similar structural rearrangements that have led to the vast duplication of many of their genes involved in detoxification in the liver. Not only do these duplication events bolster these animals' ability to process dietary toxins, they have occurred within the last 15,000 years! This research suggests that in some situations, mammals have great capacity to adapt to rapid environmental change.

Desert woodrat nested within two toxic plants (Juniper, the ancestral diet, and creosote bush the novel diet)

The study:
https://lnkd.in/g_zZfpTx

University of Utah press release:
https://lnkd.in/gMEG_Xig