Interesting fact: Turtle urine

Recently, a study from Singapore published in National Geographic confirmed that turtles urinate via their mouth. Turtles put their head in the water but are not doing for breathing,drinking or any other purpose but urea losses. The investigators found that when studied, 50 times more urea than was present in the mouth discharge was found in the water that turtles were kept in. A special gene was discovered that found a specialized protein that expels urea via mouth. 

This is very interesting science and we hope that this will help humans one day and patients on dialysis. Is this gene even exist in humans? Perhaps but not as highly expressed. Would we want to have this gene? Check out the entire article at 
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/10/121012-turtles-urine-pee-mouth-science-animals-weird/

TOPIC DISCUSSION: Hibernating Bear's urine?

                                                                                                     

1.Mostly TG in adipose tissues are used to generate all ATP needed
2. Some urea is still generated and bear has to get rid of this urea- but not via urine and the bear cannot metabolize urea directly.
3. Urea enters the GI tract and bacteria secrete urease which splits to Nh4+ and HCO3-.  Bacteria then convert that ammonium to non essential and essential amino acids. And then they are re synthesized to bear's needs.
4. Small rate at which the bear catabolizes proteins is matched by the synthesis of new proteins via the bacteria in the GI tract.
For more details read:
Clinical Detective Stories- By Mitch Halperin, MD and below
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6998737