Small nutrient molecules in fruit fuel efficient digestion and mutualism with plants in frugivorous bats.

ABSTRACT: Frugivorous bats often possess short intestines, and digest rapidly. These characters are thought to be weight-saving adaptations for flight. The hypothesis that they limit digestive efficiency was tested by assaying glucose and protein in fecal samples of a free-ranging bat, and in fruit of its main food plant. To assure the correct calculation of digestive efficiencies, seeds were used as a mass marker for nutrients in fruit and feces. Glucose represents 32.86%, and protein 0.65%, of the nutrient content of fruit. Digestive efficiencies for these nutrients respectively are 92.46% and 84.44%, clearly negating the hypothesis for glucose. Few studies have quantified protein in fruit. Instead, "crude protein", a dietary parameter solely based on nitrogen determinations, is used as a surrogat

SUBMITTER: Moreno SA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6920426 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature