Membrane Channels Involved in Electrosensitivity

[BillTre]

This little industry news article walks through how some researchers identified the channel proteins underlying a skate's (similar to a ray) electrosensitivity, which allows it to find prey buried in sand or otherwise obscured (heartbeats make weak electrical signals the animals can detect).
Their approach starts with behavior, and then goes through neurophysiology, molecular biology, and pharmacology to nail the down the channels involved in this unusual sense.

 

[Aaron Bex]

The first step the researchers took was to observe the behavior of the skates. They found that when skates were presented with weak electrical signals from buried prey, they would move their heads in the direction of the signal. This proved that the skates were capable of detecting these faint electrical signals.

Next, the researchers conducted neurophysiological experiments on the skate’s brain. They recorded the electrical activity of the neurons in response to the weak electric signals, and found that the neurons showed a higher level of activity in the presence of the signals. This confirmed that the skates were actually responding to the faint electrical signals from the prey.

To further investigate the mechanism behind the skate’s electrosensitivity, the researchers then conducted molecular biology experiments. They identified genes that are expressed in the sensory organs of the skate and are likely responsible for the detection of weak electric signals. They also identified certain proteins that are expressed in the sensory organs, which they suspected could be involved in the detection process.

Finally, the researchers conducted pharmacological experiments to test their hypothesis. They applied different chemicals to the sensory organs of the skates, and found that some of the chemicals altered the skate’s ability to detect the weak electrical signals. From this, they concluded that the specific proteins they had identified were in fact responsible for the skate’s electrosensitivity.