• HOME
  • NEWS
    • BIOENGINEERING
    • SCIENCE NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • FORUM
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • CONTACT US
Tuesday, March 9, 2021
BIOENGINEER.ORG
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME
  • NEWS
    • BIOENGINEERING
    • SCIENCE NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • FORUM
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • CONTACT US
  • HOME
  • NEWS
    • BIOENGINEERING
    • SCIENCE NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • FORUM
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • CONTACT US
No Result
View All Result
Bioengineer.org
No Result
View All Result
Home NEWS Science News Biology

Cats love silver vine and catnip for a more practical reason than developing euphoria

Bioengineer by Bioengineer
January 20, 2021
in Biology
0
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedinShare on RedditShare on Telegram

Cats use the plants to repel mosquitoes

IMAGE

Credit: Masao Miyazaki & Reiko Uenoyama

Catnip and silver vine have been known as cat attractant plants. Cat lovers use dry leaves of these plants and toys stuffed with the leaves to give joy to their pet cats. But how does this work? What is the biological significance of the responsive behavior? A research group at Iwate University, Nagoya University, Kyoto University, and University of Liverpool found that the behavior had more practical reasons than getting euphoria.

“The first appearance of silver vine (“Matatabi” in Japanese) as a cat attractant in literature in Japan dates back to more than 300 years ago. A folklore Ukiyo-e drawn in 1859 shows a group of mice trying to tempt some cats with a smell of silver vine. Still, benefits of the cats’ response had remained unknown.” says Prof. Masao Miyazaki of Iwate University, a leader of the research project.

The research group first identified the active ingredient of silver vine that induces the response. They isolated substances from extract of silver vine leaves and administrated each of them to cats to examine the response. The experiment revealed that nepetalactol, a novel substance, most strongly induces the characteristic behavior.

“We applied nepetalactol to laboratory paper filters and tested with eighteen laboratory and seventeen feral cats. They displayed the typical response to silver vine. We also tested the substance with larger, non-domestic cats (jaguar, Amur leopard, and Eurasian lynx). They showed a similar reaction. We concluded nepetalactol is responsible for the typical feline reaction to silver vine,” said Reiko Uenoyama, the paper’s first author.

The second important finding by the researchers is the biological mechanism of the response by feline animals to silver vine. They hypothesized that the μ-opioid system, which is associated with euphoric effects in humans, is activated with the plant. “We tested β-endorphin levels before and after nepetalactol-induced response in cat blood. We found that silver vine activates the nervous system that is responsible for the euphorigenic reaction,” said Miyazaki.

Does this mean cats play with silver vine to get euphoria? Alternatively, does silver vine has another function to cats? The research group believed that the plant has another biologically important function as the reaction was already shown in feline animals when they evolved from other species about 10 million years ago.

“On the basis of some reports that nepetalactone, the feline attractant in catnip, has mosquito repellent activity, we thought that the response allows cats to transfer plant’s nepetalactol or nepetalactone on their fur for protection against mosquitoes. This led to a strong hypothesis when we found the mosquito repellent activity of nepetalactol.” said Uenoyama.

To examine whether cats purposefully transfer nepetalactol, the research group placed paper filters with nepetalactol on different parts of the cat cage (floor, walls and ceiling). Although cats rubbed their faces and heads on the paper regardless of the place of the nepetalactol paper, they did not show the typical rolling when the paper was placed on a wall or ceiling. When cats rubbed against the nepetalactol paper, the substance was transferred to their faces and heads, indicating that the most important function of rubbing behavior is to apply the chemical to these parts of feline fur.

“Next, we tested the mosquito repellent property of nepetalactol on cats. We counted the numbers of mosquitoes landing on cat heads with and without application of nepetalactol. The mosquitoes landed less on the nepetalactol heads. To see whether mosquitoes react the same in a more natural setting, we compared the mosquito reaction between cats that responded to silver vine leaves and nonresponsive cats. Mosquitoes avoided the responsive cats. From these results, we found that the cats’ reaction to silver vine is chemical defense against mosquitoes, and perhaps against viruses and parasitic insects. This was the most significant finding of our study,” said Miyazaki.

Miyazaki and his colleagues see many possibilities to use the findings in research and practical application. “Why is this reaction limited to cats? Why don’t non-feline animals react to the plant? To find answers, we want to identify the gene responsible for the reaction. The findings of this study may be used in various applications, including development of new mosquito repellant products.”

###

The research is published by Science Advances on January 20, 2021.

Journal Article

Reiko Uenoyama, Tamako Miyazaki, Jane L. Hurst, Robert J. Beynon, Masaatsu Adachi, Takanobu Murooka, Ibuki Onoda, Yu Miyazawa, Rieko Katayama, Tetsuro Yamashita, Shuji Kaneko, Toshio Nishikawa, and Masao Miyazaki. The characteristic response of domestic cats to plant iridoids allows them to gain chemical defense against mosquitoes.

Science Advances.

DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abd9135

Research Contact

Professor Masao Miyazaki

Laboratory of Biomolecular Science, Department of Biological Chemistry and Food Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture, Iwate University. 3-18-8 Ueda, Morioka, Iwate 020-8550, JAPAN

TEL&FAX: +81-(0)19-621-6154

Email: [email protected]

Media Contact
Masao Miyazaki
[email protected]

Related Journal Article

http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abd9135

Tags: BiochemistryBiologyPets/EthologyPhysiologyZoology/Veterinary Science
Share12Tweet8Share2ShareShareShare2

Related Posts

IMAGE

Young white-tailed deer that disperse survive the same as those that stay home

March 8, 2021
IMAGE

Complement inhibition reverses mental losses in preclinical traumatic brain injury models

March 8, 2021

New technique brings the study of molecular configuration into the microscopic domain

March 8, 2021

Rise of marine predators reshaped ocean life as dramatically as sudden mass extinctions

March 8, 2021

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

POPULAR NEWS

  • IMAGE

    Terahertz accelerates beyond 5G towards 6G

    709 shares
    Share 284 Tweet 177
  • People living with HIV face premature heart disease and barriers to care

    86 shares
    Share 34 Tweet 22
  • Global analysis suggests COVID-19 is seasonal

    39 shares
    Share 16 Tweet 10
  • Scientists model a peculiar type of breast cancer

    35 shares
    Share 14 Tweet 9

About

We bring you the latest biotechnology news from best research centers and universities around the world. Check our website.

Follow us

Tags

cancerCell BiologyClimate ChangeTechnology/Engineering/Computer ScienceInfectious/Emerging DiseasesChemistry/Physics/Materials SciencesEcology/EnvironmentGeneticsMedicine/HealthBiologyMaterialsPublic Health

Recent Posts

  • Engineering platform offers collaborative cloud options for sustainable manufacturing
  • Research pinpoints unique drug target in antibiotic resistant bacteria
  • How fast is the universe expanding? Galaxies provide one answer.
  • Young white-tailed deer that disperse survive the same as those that stay home
  • Contact Us

© 2019 Bioengineer.org - Biotechnology news by Science Magazine - Scienmag.

No Result
View All Result
  • Homepages
    • Home Page 1
    • Home Page 2
  • News
  • National
  • Business
  • Health
  • Lifestyle
  • Science

© 2019 Bioengineer.org - Biotechnology news by Science Magazine - Scienmag.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Create New Account!

Fill the forms below to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In