Ground squirrels ignore the cold

摘要

The hardy souls who push shorts season into December might feel some kinship with the thirteen-lined ground squirrel. The critter hibernates all winter, but even when awake, the ground squirrel is less sensitive to cold than its nonhiber-nating relatives, a new study finds. That cold tolerance is linked to changes in a cold-sensing protein in the sensory nerve cells of the ground squirrel and another hibernator, the Syrian hamster, researchers report in the Dec. 19 Cell Reports. The altered protein may be an adaptation that helps the animals drift into hibernation.