Washington, Sep 29 (Inditop.com) Just as you plug in your computers and smart phones to communicate, electric fish too communicate by quickly plugging special channels into their cells to generate electrical impulses.
The fish generate electric fields to navigate, fight and attract mates in murky streams and rivers throughout Central and South America. They do so at night, while trying to avoid predators like catfish that sense the electric fields.
Generating electricity is costly, and the fish use a dimmer to save energy by turning their electrical signals up and down, says Harold Zakon, professor of neurobiology, University of Texas-Austin (UT-A).
Zakon found the dimmer switch comes in the form of sodium channels the fish insert and remove from the membranes of special cells, called electrocytes, within their electric organs.
When more sodium channels are in the cell membrane, the electric impulse emitted by the electric organ is greater.
Zakon and his colleagues also showed that the process is under the control of hormones. And it is maintained through a day-night circadian rhythm and can change rapidly during social encounters.
These findings were published in the Tuesday edition of PLoS Biology.
