Featured Post

THIS IS WHAT I DO

Barbed wire | Rescue | THIS IS WHAT I DO checking barbed wire in my own time. volunteer.

Echoes in bat and dolphin DNA

Those bats that echolocate use high-frequency sound to track small prey

The bottlenose dolphin is a toothed whale that uses echolocation

Scientists have found a striking similarity in the DNA that enables some bats and dolphins to echolocate.

A key gene that gives their ears the ability to detect high-frequency sound has produced the same amino acid changes over time in both creatures.

The researchers report their findings in the journal Current Biology.

It may be the first time that identical genetics has been shown to underpin the evolution of similar characteristics in very different organisms.

Nature is full of cases where the path taken by evolution has resulted in the same traits, or phenotypes, developing independently in diverse animal groups.

Examples would include the tusks displayed by elephants and walruses, or the bioluminescence seen in fireflies and jellyfish.

"It's common on a morphological scale but it's assumed not to occur at a DNA level because there are so many different ways to arrive at the same solution," explained Dr Stephen Rossiter of Queen Mary's School of Biological and Chemical Sciences.

"The fact that we're able to link convergence of the DNA with a phenotype I think is unique, and in such a complex phenotype as hearing as well," he told BBC News.

Animal and human

Many bats and toothed whales like dolphins have exceptional hearing, and are able to track down their prey by emitting high-frequency noises and then listening for the echoes that bounce back.

Critical to echolocation are tiny hairs in the inner ear that move in response to sound.

Their keen performance is driven by a particular protein known as prestin, which in turn is encoded by a gene, also known as prestin.

Two studies published this week in Current Biology find that this gene in bats and dolphins has picked up the same mutations over time.

"We've found a whole suite of amino acid changes that are common to these two groups that have evolved in parallel, convergently," Dr Rossiter said.

Both research teams also have evidence showing that these changes to prestin were selected for, suggesting that they must be critical for the animals' echolocation for reasons the researchers do not yet fully understand.

"The results imply that there are very limited ways, if not only one way, for a mammal to hear high-frequency sounds," said Professor Jianzhi Zhang of the University of Michigan, US, who led the other study.

This type of research is a beneficiary of the immense and ongoing effort to understand human genetics, which finds interesting targets for biologists from many fields to follow up.

Mutations in the prestin gene in humans have been shown to be associated with the loss of high-frequency hearing. It was this revelation that initiated the study of prestin's role in echolocation.

By Jonathan Amos Science correspondent, BBC News

COMMENTS

BLOGGER
Name

Articles,51,Audio,23,Backyard,24,Barbed Wire,35,Bat Art,56,Bat Books,94,Bat Box,27,Bat Clothing,16,Bat Issues,642,Bat Stamps,1,Bats,4,Bats for Children,39,Bats for the Home,70,Electrocution,9,Events,39,info on bats,643,Jackie Sparrow,26,Microbats,469,Misc,121,Netting,40,Newsletter,5,Promoting,152,Rehab,92,Rehab 2011,7,Rehab 2012,25,Rehab 2013,15,Rehab 2014,6,Rehab 2015,108,Rehab 2016,136,Rehab 2017,73,Rehab 2018,29,Rehab 2019,2,Release Cage,2,RESCUE,74,Rescue 2011,1,Rescue 2012,7,RESCUE 2013,18,RESCUE 2014,8,RESCUE 2015,25,Rescue 2016,20,RESCUE 2017,16,Rescue 2018,10,Rescue 2019,6,Rob Mies,11,Shooting,2,Vegetation,27,Video,399,Virus,128,WebSites-Bat,45,
ltr
item
BatsRule!: Echoes in bat and dolphin DNA
Echoes in bat and dolphin DNA
Echoes in bat and dolphin DNA
https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-l-0z7qdivls/V9c-r588D5I/AAAAAAACbJc/T9dVijzxI3Qj1g3qn7M33NeUyXES445jgCLcB/s320/Echoes%2Bin%2Bbat%2Band%2Bdolphin%2BDNA2.jpg
https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-l-0z7qdivls/V9c-r588D5I/AAAAAAACbJc/T9dVijzxI3Qj1g3qn7M33NeUyXES445jgCLcB/s72-c/Echoes%2Bin%2Bbat%2Band%2Bdolphin%2BDNA2.jpg
BatsRule!
http://batsrule-helpsavewildlife.blogspot.com/2013/01/echoes-in-bat-and-dolphin-dna.html
http://batsrule-helpsavewildlife.blogspot.com/
http://batsrule-helpsavewildlife.blogspot.com/
http://batsrule-helpsavewildlife.blogspot.com/2013/01/echoes-in-bat-and-dolphin-dna.html
true
4238281482117672351
UTF-8
Loaded All Posts Not found any posts VIEW ALL Readmore Reply Cancel reply Delete By Home PAGES POSTS View All RECOMMENDED FOR YOU LABEL ARCHIVE SEARCH ALL POSTS Not found any post match with your request Back Home Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat January February March April May June July August September October November December Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec just now 1 minute ago $$1$$ minutes ago 1 hour ago $$1$$ hours ago Yesterday $$1$$ days ago $$1$$ weeks ago more than 5 weeks ago Followers Follow THIS PREMIUM CONTENT IS LOCKED STEP 1: Share to a social network STEP 2: Click the link on your social network Copy All Code Select All Code All codes were copied to your clipboard Can not copy the codes / texts, please press [CTRL]+[C] (or CMD+C with Mac) to copy