The shocking truth about electric fish: Genomic basis for the convergent evolution of electric organ

I wasn't really sure where to put this cause there isn't a forum specifically for animals so Mods you can move this to where you think it fits best.

The shocking truth about electric fish: Genomic basis for the convergent evolution of electric organs

Writing June 27, 2014 in the journal Science, a team of researchers led by Michael Sussman of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Harold Zakon of the University of Texas at Austin and Manoj Samanta of the Systemix Institute in Redmond, Washington identifies the regulatory molecules involved in the genetic and developmental pathways that electric fish have used to convert a simple muscle into an organ capable of generating a potent electrical field.

The work establishes the genetic basis for the electric organ, an anatomical feature found only in fish and that evolved independently half a dozen times in environments ranging from the flooded forests of the Amazon to murky marine environments.

"These fish have converted a muscle to an electric organ," explains Sussman, a professor of biochemistry and director of the UW-Madison Biotechnology Center, who first undertook the exploration of the electric organ almost a decade ago. The study published in Science provides evidence to support the idea that the six electric fish lineages, all of which evolved independently, used essentially the same genes and developmental and cellular pathways to make an electric organ, needed for defense, predation, navigation and communication.

I recently watched the BBC documentary Planet Earth and thought it was cool that the eel evolved to be able to use electricity to help them either catch prey or to stay alive themselves. I knew about electric eels but I didn't know there were others species that had electric organs too.

I think it's also neat how if they are able to fully understand this process and manipulate the process in humans that we could use it to generate electrical power in bionic devices, like it says in the last excerpt.


Quoting External Sources - Please Review This Link

That's really fascinating - thanks for the link. The Egyptians and Romans were using electric catfish for medical therapy of many conditions over 2000 years ago. What have we been doing all those centuries inbetween????

www.fishyou.com...

a reply to: stormcell
leaving our x wives untreated

I read this earlier but thanks for posting it here. All animals(Insects) who can create light or electricity have always fascinated me. I remember the first time I watched on TeeVee about creatures in the deep ocean emitting light.....it just blew me away! I still pause and watch lightning bugs(fire flies) and think about how strange, yet beautiful, they are.

I also watched some vids on electric eels and they showed one kill an alligator. Another dropped a full-grown man like he had stuck his finger in a light socket. Again, electricity and light being made by living creatures is a fascinating thing here on earth! S&F

originally posted by: Fylgje
I read this earlier but thanks for posting it here. All animals(Insects) who can create light or electricity have always fascinated me. I remember the first time I watched on TeeVee about creatures in the deep ocean emitting light.....it just blew me away! I still pause and watch lightning bugs(fire flies) and think about how strange, yet beautiful, they are.

I also watched some vids on electric eels and they showed one kill an alligator. Another dropped a full-grown man like he had stuck his finger in a light socket. Again, electricity and light being made by living creatures is a fascinating thing here on earth! S&F

Watching the BBC Planet Earth series, they talked about animals & insects who can create light and I too find it fascinating. They showed the fish that has the light that hangs off his head (the showed the fish on Finding Nemo) and it's just as creepy looking in the wild as the movie depicted it. If you haven't seen the series, I recommend watching it.

There are so many fascinating creatures out there, especially in the more remote & exotic places, like the Rain Forest.