Do pandas hold the key to reducing US reliance on foreign oil?

panda have all kind of talents , like looking adorable , dozing off for no reason , andlooking tiny next to Shaq .

But panda bear are also pretty grown on eat and pooping , and , by extension , digest unsanded works materials . It ’s this last acquisition , in particular , that has chemists concerned in what pandas can instruct us about next - generation biofuel yield .

scientist have know for some sentence that pandas harbour beneficial venter bugs that help them process and gain nutrients from the baffling , hard - to - digest cellulose rule in bamboo . But how these germ aid in this process ( allow alone how they might be used in an industrial context for the output of biofuels ) , has long been look across . Until now .

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In a presentation delivered yesterday at the 242nd National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society , scientist Ashli Brown uncover that the stomach bacterium find in pandas is particularly efficient at separate down a works stuff bed as lignocellulose . Lignocellulose is typically found in replacement forage , corn stalking , and Sir Henry Joseph Wood chips — resources that could aid switch the biofuel industriousness away from consuming so - called “ precious nutrient crop ” like corn , soybeans , and sugar .

Brown ’s finding are based on over 12 months of hands - on study of fresh panda poo , good manners of a couple of bear cat at the Memphis Zoo . Her finding suggest that many of the bug she ’s chance on resemble those found in termites , which are notoriously good at churn through hard - to - compilation wood fibers .

Our study suggest that bacteria mintage in the panda intestine may be more effective at breaking down industrial plant textile than termite bacteria , and may do so in a way that is better for biofuel manufacturing purposes .

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In theory , the unprecedented efficiency of the bacteria found in panda ’s stomachs could fend off the use of precious food for thought crops and present - day biofuel production processes that require high heating plant , rough acids , and mellow pressure treatments . By identifying all the enteral bacterium in the coon bear gut , Brown says scientists could pick out the best bugs of the wad and genetically organize yeasts that could conduct out this conversion appendage as efficiently as the giant panda do .

Brown says she thinks her enquiry could help cut dependance of foreign oil , but also hopes it will reinforce the importance of wildlife preservation :

The discovery also teach a lesson about the importance of biodiversity and preserving queer animals … fauna and plants are a major author of medicines and other products that people calculate on . When we mislay them to extinction , we may turn a loss possible source of these product .

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