2023-12-22 21:00:00
The Electric Eel produces powerful electrical currents that can transform the DNA of other fish in the water, Japanese biologists have discovered in a fascinating experiment.
Featured in the magazine New Scientist, this discovery is absolutely remarkable. Incredible, even. The Electric Eel, a species of freshwater fish that lives in the Amazon, is capable of sending electric shocks of up to 860 volts! But that’s not the most surprising thing. In a dizzying experiment, researcher Atsuo Iida, a biologist at Japan’s Nagoya University, and his team sought to test the hypothesis that the marine predator might possibly act as a gene transfer vehicle within their aquatic environment. The answer is yes.
The electric eel can modify the cells of neighboring organisms.
In addition to electrocuting the fish that gravitate around it, the Electric Eel can also considerably transform their genetic makeup. A wonderful sleight of hand, or rather a total interference in the private lives of other critters, but nature is like that. To achieve this astonishing observation, Atsuo Iida and his team immersed zebrafish larvae in an aquarium containing the DNA of a green fluorescent protein from a jellyfish. Then, biologists exposed them to electric shocks from the Amazon’s largest fish. The next day, some embryos began to flicker. The researchers finally had proof that the larvae had succeeded in decoding the fluorescent protein gene, indicates New Scientist.
Some larvae glowed for up to 7 days
According to the magazine, some zebrafish larvae continued to glow for three days, some even for a week. The Eel has the potential “to function as an electroporter for DNA transfer“, describe the researchers in the journal Peer, and not only to paralyze its prey. In science, electroporation is used to transfer DNA into bacteria or eukaryotic cells in culture. We now know that this phenomenon also exists in nature. Today, scientists still do not know whether such transfers actually occur in aquatic environments and to what extent this might affect marine biodiversity. “Further research is needed to understand the ecological implications of this phenomenon“, conclude the experts.
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