To say that the most embarrassing scene in nature is that the poison is poisoned to death by himself.
For example, when the pufferfish is frightened, it will immediately secrete the deadly tetrodotoxin. As a result, he accidentally secreted too much, but he poisoned himself to death.
Another example is a laboratory record case in which an Egyptian beaked cobra accidentally bit itself, and the wound was severely swollen, and symptoms of venom poisoning appeared.
Seeing this, we can't help but gloat in our hearts: we didn't expect highly poisonous creatures to end up like this.
But please don't be too happy. These are just "stupid young people" who are not well-educated in highly toxic animals. Most highly toxic creatures do not make such mistakes.
So, what efforts did these highly toxic creatures put in to avoid being poisoned to death by themselves? For most humans who have no resistance to venom, what can these strategies inspire us? Why are mammals rarely poisonous?
I believe everyone has seen beautiful jellyfish in the aquarium. Regardless of their attractive appearance, most jellyfish in nature are highly toxic. Among them, box jellyfish, sail jellyfish and mikoma jellyfish are more toxic. Even if you accidentally touch the body fragments of these jellyfish, it can still make you cry.
Although different in shape, these jellyfish are familiar with a strategy of "self-anti-drug". The essence of this strategy is also very simple, that is, try to store the venom in a safe place.
Take jellyfish for example, it has a harpoon-like structure called cnidaria.
There is a thorn sac inside the cnidaria, and the thorn sac will spit a thorn, and the thorn will wrap the venom safely. When stimulated by the outside world, the cnidaria inside the cnidaria will absorb water from the surrounding cytoplasm.
This will change the osmotic pressure of the sac wall, thereby increasing the pressure in the barbed wire sac. The barbed wire can also break through the cover plate and turn out, and directly spit out the venom.
Since this is the spontaneous reaction of the barbed wire sac, even if the jellyfish is torn into pieces, it can launch venom on the enemy.
It can be seen that this strategy of the jellyfish can attack the enemy without poisoning itself. Although this strategy works, it doesn't seem to be very clever.
But don't worry, nature's extraordinary craftsmanship is beyond our human imagination. The structure of highly toxic animals is of course no exception.
Many people have heard of poison dart frogs since they were young. As one of the most toxic species, there are currently more than 200 species known.
This frog looks cute, but there is an alkaloid toxin in their skin glands.
This toxin can permanently block the transmission of nerve signals to muscle cells, causing the muscles to remain tense and unable to relax. The toxin in a golden poison dart frog can kill 10 adults in 3 minutes.
However, what is unexpected is that when these poison dart frogs are artificially housed, they are completely harmless.
In other words, the poison dart frog itself does not produce these toxins. Studies have found that the toxins in poison dart frogs come from the food they eat, such as poisonous spiders. So why don't these foreign toxins poison the poison dart frog to death?
Before announcing the answer, we must first have a general understanding of how these toxins work.
In fact, the neurotoxin of some poison dart frogs is called Echinophyllin-a compound similar to morphine. Once other animals prey on poison frogs, these toxins enter the predator’s nervous system. They bind to the surface receptors of nerve cells and can interfere with the work of acetylcholine to transmit nerve signals. There is a protein on the cell membrane called a receptor. It is responsible for transmitting information inside and outside the cell. Similar to a lock in life, each recipient must have a specific key to open it. Usually the receiver will only send a signal when it comes into contact with a perfectly matched "key".
However, scientists have discovered that Echinocobalamin is like a "master key" that can turn on receptors on the nerve cells of predators, thereby destroying the function of the nervous system. In this way, it will induce high blood pressure, dizziness, epilepsy, and even death.
So why don't these toxins bind to the receptors on the nerve cells of poison dart frogs?
Studies have found that the reason why these poison frogs are not poisoned is because they have a tiny genetic mutation. It turns out that among the 2500 amino acids that make up the Poison dart frog receptor, 3 amino acids have undergone minor changes. This cleverly prevents the toxins from binding to their own receptors, so they will not poison themselves to death.
In other words, in order to contain this toxin, they slightly change the shape of their receptors, so they will not be disturbed by this toxin.
Don't underestimate the mutations of these 3 amino acids. If you make too many mutations, not only the "master key" of toxins can't be opened, but even the normal receptors may not be opened.
In this case, the normal function of the nervous system of the organism will also be greatly affected. It is conceivable that these three amino acids have to be mutated so skillfully that they will not affect the binding of normal receptors to them.
Of course, highly toxic organisms that alter genes in the nervous system are not uncommon. For example, sea slugs, after genetic mutations, will swallow jellyfish cnidaria and convert the toxins in them into tools for self-defense.
The research results also brought valuable enlightenment to human drug development. As we all know, almost all analgesics currently work by binding to the corresponding neuroreceptors. However, most drugs have side effects such as addiction to a greater or lesser extent. The reason is simple, because they not only act on pain receptors, but also on other nerve receptors. So, can we reduce the side effects by modifying the surface receptors of the nervous system according to the strategy of the poison dart frog?
Perhaps in the near future, scientists will be able to develop drugs that can relieve pain without causing addiction.
Seeing this, you will find that both the jellyfish with hidden weapons and the poison dart frog with genetic mutations have only adopted a single strategy.
However, there are also some highly toxic creatures that will adopt diversified strategies to help them resist toxins to ensure that they are foolproof. Such as the more common venomous snakes.
Similar to jellyfish, venomous snakes also store their venom in a special compartment. The difference is that the only exit from this compartment is the teeth.
When a poisonous snake bites an enemy, the venom enters the opponent's body through the teeth. We know that there are many types of venomous snakes, and the damage they cause is also varied.
In general, the venom of a venomous snake is generally divided into blood circulation toxins, neurotoxins and mixed venoms.
The so-called blood circulation toxins are toxins that enter the blood circulation system, which can destroy organs and even cells, causing prey to die from symptoms such as myocardial infarction.
Neurotoxins can block the signals between nerves, causing them to lose their function. It may paralyze the muscles or hinder movement at a slight level, and may cause paralysis of the respiratory muscles and may cause suffocation. Mixed toxins have both the characteristics of blood circulation toxins and neurotoxins, and have more powerful toxicity.
Since the power of the venom is so great, wouldn't the snake really poison itself? To put it another way, if they release the venom through their teeth, wouldn’t they accidentally swallow the venom?
The answer is yes. But if you swallow it, these venoms can't hurt themselves either.
This is due to the second anti-phagocytic strategy adopted by the viper: the production of substances that resist toxicity. In the blood of snakes, there are immune substances that resist their own venom. With these substances, the poisonous snake swallows its own venom, just like we swallow our own saliva, and will not cause harm to our body tissues.
Inspired by this, the anti-venom serum used in medicine to treat snakebites is a similar substance.
Seeing this, you will find that highly poisonous animals really do everything they can to prevent themselves from being poisoned to death.
But this is limited to reptiles or mollusks. We seem to have rarely heard that mammals are poisonous, let alone have strong anti-drug ability.
According to statistics, there are only a handful of mammals that are truly poisonous. However, the fossils of early mammals suggest that mammals used poison in the past.
So, why do most modern mammals give up this ability tacitly? Is it because advanced mammals are afraid of being stupid enough to be poisoned by venom?
The answer is of course no. In fact, giving up the use of poison is a smart choice, after all, the cost-effectiveness of the evolution of venom and the ability to resist poison is too low. Because accumulating venom is not an easy task, it takes a lot of effort.
Also, when mammals became the ruler of the earth, their body size became larger and larger. Therefore, it is extremely difficult to produce enough toxins to bring down large prey at one time.
On the contrary, the increasingly developed nervous system also brings great power. Therefore, compared to passive defensive measures such as releasing venom, violent struggle has become a more efficient skill to defend against the enemy. Naturally, the production of venom by oneself became a burden and was gradually abandoned.
