"The ion channels don't resemble any known ion channel on Earth"We think of the standard insect shaped aliens characters' nearly unconquerable omniscience as due to group telepathic linkage at varying levels of organization. Usually it all leads back to the Queen in total tele-command of the forces in the field from back on the homeworld; she is usually simultaneously busily pumping out eggs while being tended obsequiously by the adoring homeboys...er ...homebugs. Regicide is just as effective for beating the insectoid forces from Away as it is for a ending a beehive.
But first you've got to get to the queen. The defenders are many, their coordination superb.
Understanding the nature of that coordination is critical to defeating the insectoid defenders. Now recent research suggests that these organisms - the earthly version at least - may communicate in somewhat the same way that large schools of herring do. Not group mind. Nor via some sort of biological ansible. Rather, by ....breaking wind. Sorta.
Newswise.com reports that Researcher Leslie Vosshall, head of the Laboratory of Neurogenetics and Behavior at Rockefeller University and Kazushige Touhara of Tokyo University's Division of Integrated Biosciences have joined forces to reveal that insects have adopted a strategy to detect odors that is radically different from those of other organisms -- an unexpected and controversial finding that may dissolve a dominant ideology in the field and evolution as presently understood.
"The ion channels don't resemble any known ion channel on Earth, says Vosshall. "They are composed of two proteins that work in tandem with one another: an olfactory receptor and its coreceptor, Or83b. While the coreceptor is common to every ion channel, the olfactory receptor is unique. Together, they form the olfactory receptor complex."
"Now the curious result in the DEET paper showing that this insect repellent blocks insect olfactory receptors and unrelated ion channels makes sense," says Vosshall. "I am optimistic that we can come up with blockers specific for this very strange family of insect olfactory ion channels."
Image credit: Walter R. Tschinkel
But first you've got to get to the queen. The defenders are many, their coordination superb.
Understanding the nature of that coordination is critical to defeating the insectoid defenders. Now recent research suggests that these organisms - the earthly version at least - may communicate in somewhat the same way that large schools of herring do. Not group mind. Nor via some sort of biological ansible. Rather, by ....breaking wind. Sorta.
Newswise.com reports that Researcher Leslie Vosshall, head of the Laboratory of Neurogenetics and Behavior at Rockefeller University and Kazushige Touhara of Tokyo University's Division of Integrated Biosciences have joined forces to reveal that insects have adopted a strategy to detect odors that is radically different from those of other organisms -- an unexpected and controversial finding that may dissolve a dominant ideology in the field and evolution as presently understood.
"The ion channels don't resemble any known ion channel on Earth, says Vosshall. "They are composed of two proteins that work in tandem with one another: an olfactory receptor and its coreceptor, Or83b. While the coreceptor is common to every ion channel, the olfactory receptor is unique. Together, they form the olfactory receptor complex."
"Now the curious result in the DEET paper showing that this insect repellent blocks insect olfactory receptors and unrelated ion channels makes sense," says Vosshall. "I am optimistic that we can come up with blockers specific for this very strange family of insect olfactory ion channels."
Image credit: Walter R. Tschinkel
1 comment:
I doubt that the proposed chemical signalling would be anywhere quick enough for the task at hand. Similar problems apply in other group systems, such as schools of fish and flocks of birds, and also within organisms, such as coordinating processes in the human body, for example. Some more plausible alternative are discussed in Lynne McTaggart's 'The Field'.
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