from the shocking-new-cologne-called-eel-on-musk dept.
Phys.org
How electric fish were able to evolve electric organs
Electric organs help electric fish, such as the electric eel, do all sorts of amazing things: They send and receive signals that are akin to bird songs, helping them to recognize other electric fish by species, sex and even individual. A new study in Science Advances explains how small genetic changes enabled electric fish to evolve electric organs. The finding might also help scientists pinpoint the genetic mutations behind some human diseases.
Evolution took advantage of a quirk of fish genetics to develop electric organs. All fish have duplicate versions of the same gene that produces tiny muscle motors, called sodium channels. To evolve electric organs, electric fish turned off one duplicate of the sodium channel gene in muscles and turned it on in other cells. The tiny motors that typically make muscles contract were repurposed to generate electric signals, and voila! A new organ with some astonishing capabilities was born.
[....] researchers from UT Austin and Michigan State University describe discovering a short section of this sodium channel gene—about 20 letters long—that controls whether the gene is expressed in any given cell. They confirmed that in electric fish, this control region is either altered or entirely missing. And that's why one of the two sodium channel genes is turned off in the muscles of electric fish.
[....] "This control region is in most vertebrates, including humans," Zakon said. "So, the next step in terms of human health would be to examine this region in databases of human genes to see how much variation there is in normal people and whether some deletions or mutations in this region could lead to a lowered expression of sodium channels, which might result in disease."
[....] Zakon said the sodium channel gene had to be turned off in muscle before an electric organ could evolve.
"If they turned on the gene in both muscle and the electric organ, then all the new stuff that was happening to the sodium channels in the electric organ would also be occurring in the muscle," Zakon said. "So, it was important to isolate the expression of the gene to the electric organ, where it could evolve without harming muscle."
[....] "If you rewound the tape of life and hit play, would it play back the same way or would it find new ways forward? Would evolution work the same way over and over again?" said Gallant, who breeds the electric fish from South America that were used in part of the study.
It is shocking that electric organs are not only for musicians.
More information: Sarah LaPotin et al, Divergent cis-regulatory evolution underlies the convergent loss of sodium channel expression in electric fish, Science Advances (2022). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abm2970 or www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abm2970
Journal information: Science Advances
(Score: 4, Funny) by Gaaark on Saturday June 04 2022, @02:43PM (3 children)
They're for horny women, too!
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Saturday June 04 2022, @04:36PM (1 child)
The organ donor card said nothing about that.
Donate:
[x] pipe
[_] synthesized
[_] harmonica
How often should I have my memory checked? I used to know but...
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by krishnoid on Saturday June 04 2022, @08:19PM
In unrelated sad news [slashdot.org] from the green site.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 05 2022, @12:52AM
I think they could have squeezed in one more pun about electric organs. I almost missed the first three.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Gaaark on Saturday June 04 2022, @02:46PM (3 children)
Could this be used to make a real 'meat/muscle' pace maker?
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 04 2022, @03:07PM (2 children)
Go for it!
Brainstorming--one way to start is to develop an "organ" that generates enough power (biologically) to meet the average power demands of an existing pacemaker, store in a super capacitor (near-infinite lifetime). No more need for operations every ~10 years to change the pacemaker battery. Later developments could work toward doing the whole job biologically.
I have no idea if it could work, but I'll bet there are VCs out there who would fund it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 04 2022, @03:56PM (1 child)
I'm s bit surprised they don't just install some means of induction charging.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Saturday June 04 2022, @04:38PM
Rechargeable batteries still wear out. Right when you need them most.
At least, that's what she said.
How often should I have my memory checked? I used to know but...
(Score: 3, Interesting) by maxwell demon on Saturday June 04 2022, @02:51PM (3 children)
That suggests an interesting science fiction scenario: Genetically modified policemen with tasers as natural part of their body.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 04 2022, @03:10PM
Adds a whole new meaning to "laying on of hands" too, once the religious nuts get theirs.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Gaaark on Saturday June 04 2022, @03:26PM
"I can't breathe....... but you DID jump-start my heart with your knee!"
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 05 2022, @12:02AM
I say let it to Marvel's dumb collection of superheroes. Oh, wait...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 04 2022, @03:24PM (3 children)
do the fish get a shock themselfs?
like sitting on a pedalton w/ dynamo and connecting the leads to the one pedaling?
or is person throwing the absolute last switch to turn on a nuke reactor immune to the radiation it produces?
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 05 2022, @12:11AM (2 children)
They do [forbes.com] and sometimes they die of it, unless they take special care when they trigger.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 05 2022, @07:31PM (1 child)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 07 2022, @02:31PM
BS. Quora is the golden standard for answers now in the 2000s and it always will be
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 04 2022, @11:21PM
How to turn off this gene in shiny metal robots?
Asking for a friend.