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WHY CATS GO NUTS FOR A MINT PLANT
Time：2020-5-19 Source：Techcomp HK Marketing Author： Gilbert Cheung
Watching a cat react to catnip is to seemingly watch a cat react to a
recreational drug. It makes some cats chill and others incredibly
stimulated.
Why this plant affects cats so
powerfully is newly explained by a
study released Wednesday in Science
Advances.
Catnip is technically called
catmint, or Nepeta
cataria. It's a plant in the mint family. Previously,
scientists established that it evolved to have a pungent odor because that
repels insects that want to eat it. This odor comes from a chemical called nepetalactone. It's inhaling this chemical that causes
cats to be affected by the plant — that's why they often rub against and roll around with catnip.
In this new study,
researchers examined the evolutionary history of nepetalactone.
After conducting genetic analysis
on catmint, the team discovered that, over the course of its evolutionary
history, catmint evolved to make nepetalactone not once, but twice.
This means catmint's ancestor
plants actually stopped making nepetalactone at some point, then EVOLVED A SECOND TIME to create
the chemical.
It's an example of "repeated
evolution with a twist," the researchers write. While the nepetalactone
chemicals have the same structure as other scent-producing molecules in the
mint family, there are key differences.
Put into practice, that's why
catnip sends your cat into a frenzy, and peppermint doesn't.
Study co-author Benjamin Lichman, a plant biologist at the University of
York, says his team "discovered a suite of unusual enzymes" which are
responsible for creating nepetalactone.
"These enzymes are not found
in any related plant species and have evolved uniquely in catmint,"
Lichman explains.
Other types of mint, like
peppermint, produce chemicals that are formed by just one enzyme. But catnip
uses a double-hit: One enzyme activates a compound, which a second enzyme then
picks up in a double-process.
Interestingly, within the catmint
genome, the genes responsible for creating nepetalactone are located next to
each other. They form a genetic cluster that gave the researchers clues as to
why catmint is different from its relatives.
"This allowed us to solve
the problem more easily," Lichman says.
WHY CATS
GO NUTS FOR A MINT PLANT — Catmint,
or catnip, isn't really a drug. So why do cats have such a noticeable reaction
to the plant?
The science behind the attraction
has to do with the same strong scent that catmint has repeatedly evolved to
produce. The strongly scented chemicals target receptors in cats' tissue, near
their nose, and activate the same neural
pathways as sexual pheromones.
Evolutionarily, the reason the
strong scent is important is that it can have a similar effect on insects
that eat catmint
— like aphids. “We think that by producing these volatile compounds, the plant
‘confuses’ insects,” Lichman previously told Inverse, "which prevents them from landing on the plant and
eating it.”
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