ReviewNutrients2017
Sugar Metabolism in Hummingbirds and Nectar Bats.
Review in Nutrients, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers.
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Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 36 citations in OpenAlex.
- Comparative physiology and biomimetics in metabolic and environmental health: what can we learn from extreme animal phenotypes?Diabetologia · 2026Review
- Metabolomics-constrained modelling reveals dominant oxidative metabolism in the Egyptian fruit bat myocardium.PloS one · 2026Article
- Factors shaping sugar metabolism in Neotropical bats: A physiological and ecological perspective.PloS one · 2026Article
- Bat power-metabolic profiling of the Egyptian fruit batbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- The hummingbird's adipostat: can a simple rule explain torpor frequency and duration in hummingbirds?Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2025Article
- Sugar assimilation underlying dietary evolution of Neotropical bats.Nature ecology & evolution · 2024Article
- Glycation resistance and life-history traits: lessons from non-conventional animal models.Biology letters · 2024Review
- Dietary Diversification and Specialization in Neotropical Bats Facilitated by Early Molecular Evolution.Molecular biology and evolution · 2021Article
- Understanding the evolution of nutritive taste in animals: Insights from biological stoichiometry and nutritional geometry.Ecology and evolution · 2021Review
- Neonicotinoid pesticides exert metabolic effects on avian pollinators.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Interferon Regulatory Factors IRF1 and IRF7 Directly Regulate Gene Expression in Bats in Response to Viral Infection.Cell reports · 2020Article
- Glucose transporter expression and regulation following a fast in the ruby-throated hummingbird,The Journal of experimental biology · 2020Article
- Induced pluripotent stem cells as a tool for comparative physiology: lessons from the thirteen-lined ground squirrel.The Journal of experimental biology · 2019Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Hummingbirds and nectar bats coevolved with the plants they visit to feed on floral nectars rich in sugars. The extremely high metabolic costs imposed by small size and hovering flight in combination with reliance upon sugars as their main source of dietary calories resulted in convergent evolution of a suite of structural and functional traits. These allow high rates of aerobic energy metabolism in the flight muscles, fueled almost entirely by the oxidation of dietary sugars, during flight. High intestinal sucrase activities enable high rates of sucrose hydrolysis. Intestinal absorption of glucose and fructose occurs mainly through a paracellular pathway. In the fasted state, energy metabolism during flight relies on the oxidation of fat synthesized from previously-ingested sugar. During repeated bouts of hover-feeding, the enhanced digestive capacities, in combination with high capacities for sugar transport and oxidation in the flight muscles, allow the operation of the "sugar oxidation cascade", the pathway by which dietary sugars are directly oxidized by flight muscles during exercise. It is suggested that the potentially harmful effects of nectar diets are prevented by locomotory exercise, just as in human hunter-gatherers who consume large quantities of honey.
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