{"id":665,"date":"2012-03-07T02:48:38","date_gmt":"2012-03-07T02:48:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/science\/?p=665"},"modified":"2012-03-07T02:48:38","modified_gmt":"2012-03-07T02:48:38","slug":"uc-davis-stinging-and-seeing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/science\/2012\/03\/07\/uc-davis-stinging-and-seeing\/","title":{"rendered":"UC Davis: Stinging and Seeing"},"content":{"rendered":"

View this story on the Web at
\n<\/p>\n

University of California, Davis
\nMarch 5, 2012<\/p>\n

New research from the University of California shows how the ability
\nto detect light could have evolved before anything like an eye.<\/p>\n

As published today (March 5) in the journal BMC Biology, the research
\nis based on the stinging mechanism in the tiny, brainless and eyeless
\nfreshwater polyp Hydra magnipapillata. Part of a group of animals
\ncalled cnidarians that includes sea anemones, corals and jellyfish, a
\nhydra is essentially a mouth surrounded by tentacles armed with
\nstinging cells, or cnidocytes.<\/p>\n

The researchers — David Plachetzki, now a postdoctoral researcher at
\nUC Davis, working with undergraduate Caitlin Fong and Professor Todd
\nOakley in the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology at
\nUC Santa Barbara — discovered a simple nervous system linking the
\nstinging cells and nerve cells that detect light using a process
\nsimilar to the human eye’s.<\/p>\n

The nerve cells express a set of genes including opsin, a
\nlight-sensitive pigment; cyclic nucleotide gated ion channels; and
\narrestin. These components are basically the same as those in the
\nlight-detecting pathway in animals with eyes, including people.<\/p>\n

The hydra fire their stingers less in bright than in dim light, the
\nresearchers found. When they blocked one of the pathway’s components,
\nthe hydra acted as if they were in dim light and fired their stingers
\nmore.<\/p>\n

Most of the hydra’s cnidarian relatives lack eyes. But all cnidarians
\nhave cnidocyte stinging cells.<\/p>\n

“This capacity for stinging cell regulation by light-sensitive
\nneurons could have predated the evolution of eyes in cnidarians,”
\nPlachetzki said. Future work will be aimed at how these findings
\nrelate to the evolution of eyes in other groups of animals.<\/p>\n

The National Science Foundation funded the work.<\/p>\n

Media contact(s):
\n* David Plachetzki, Center for Population Biology,
\nplachetzki@ucdavis.edu
\n* Andy Fell, UC Davis News Service, (530) 752-4533, ahfell@ucdavis.edu<\/p>\n

Special thanks to Craig Quirolo<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

View this story on the Web at University of California, Davis March 5, 2012 New research from the University of California shows how the ability to detect light could have evolved before anything like an eye. As published today (March 5) in the journal BMC Biology, the research is based on the stinging mechanism in … Continue reading UC Davis: Stinging and Seeing<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=665"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":666,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665\/revisions\/666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}