How Electric Fish Can Have Electric Organs?

KOMPAS.com – Fish electricity, one of which is like electric eels have electric organs that help them do all sorts of amazing things.

For example, sending and receiving signals, helps them recognize fish other electricity by species, gender, and even individuals.

But there is still a fundamental question that remains unanswered, how? electric fish it could have an electric organ?

A new study in Science Advances also explains how small genetic changes allow electric fish to have electric organs.

Read also: Sheepshead Fish Facts, Unique Fish with Human-like Teeth

Quoted from Science DailyMonday (6/6/2022) evolution takes advantage of the genetic peculiarities of fish to develop electrical organs.

All fish have duplicate versions of the same gene that produce tiny muscle motors, called sodium channels.

To develop an electric organ, the electric fish had to turn off one duplicate of the sodium channel gene in muscle and turn it on in another.

The tiny motors that normally make muscles contract are reused to generate electrical signals. And, voila! A new organ with some amazing abilities was born.

“This is exciting because we can see how small changes in a gene can completely change where the gene is expressed,” said Harold Zakon, author of the study.

Researchers from UT Austin and Michigan State University explain that in electric fish, the control region of this sodium channel gene is altered or completely lost.

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