Many are the poisonous animals that we can find on Earth, and perhaps the most dangerous from this point of view are the small frogs of the Dendrobatidae family that with their venom is capable of killing 10 adult humans. However, these amphibians are not born poisonous, they acquire toxins from the food they eat, but why don’t they die from eating those foods? And also why don’t these poisonous animals and others die due to their own poison?
Why don’t poisonous animals die with their own poison?
Why don’t they die from eating poisoned food? This question has puzzled scientists for years, but now a new study, published in the Journal of General Physiology, explores the phenomenon. In this article, the experts studied poisonous frogs of the genus Phyllobates using a toxin called batrachotoxin.
This venom disrupts the transport of sodium ions in and out of cells , leaving ion channels open. The latter are very important for our body, since they allow communication, through electrical signals from the brain, in different parts of the body. If these cannot be closed, the entire system loses the ability to transmit electrical signals.
So how come these creatures don’t die in the process of becoming poisonous ? There are three strategies poisonous animals could use to stop self-poisoning. The most common is a mutation in the protein that the toxin targets , the sodium ion gate, so that it can no longer bind to it.
Another strategy, used by poisonous animal predators, is the ability to completely remove the toxin from the body . The third strategy is called “sequestration” in which the “animal will develop systems to capture or absorb the toxin to make sure it does not cause problems,” explained Fayal Abderemane-Ali, a researcher at the University of California Cardiovascular Research Institute. San Francisco and lead author of a new study.
In the study, the scientist cloned the frog’s sodium channels and found that they were not, in fact, resistant to the toxin. These animals should be dead, thought the expert. Abderemane-Ali suspects that these frogs are using the “kidnapping” strategy to avoid dying . The creatures most likely produce a protein that can absorb the toxin and retain it , which means that the toxin never has a chance to reach these vulnerable areas.
In short, a demonstration of Mother Nature’s incredible genetic engineering.
