The thick hairs in the caterpillars have one purpose above all: predators must spit out the woolly caterpillars as quickly as possible when trying to eat them or reject them from the start. Many times, the hair will also inject a toxin if touched. in the larvae of the genus The huge one Andrew Walker of the University of Queensland and his team have discovered that this toxin has an ancient origin – likely derived from horizontal gene transfer from bacteria, As mentioned in “PNAS”.
The team had southern flannel moth larvae (megalopygee opercularis) And from megalobeg crispata He studied living in North America. Both caterpillars and butterflies have a thick coat of hairs that break off easily in the larval stage and then release a painful toxin that causes a strong burning sensation. Chemically, it differs markedly from related species and even from all other insects. “We were surprised that the venom of the larvae was so different from anything we’d seen previously in insects,” Walker says.
The working group therefore suspected that the toxins may have a different evolutionary origin. In fact, some of the proteins in it are very similar to the molecules found in bacterial toxins. Specifically, the larva’s venom is similar to a type of bacterial toxin that binds to the cell surface, where it aggregates into a ring-like structure that tears holes in target cells: this effect is known, for example, from toxins that coli– or salmonellaBreeding bacteria.
“Alcohol buff. Troublemaker. Introvert. Student. Social media lover. Web ninja. Bacon fan. Reader.”
More Stories
Zelinger defends cooperation with China
Science – a research initiative that brings millions to the University of Mainz – Education
Do you want to work at NASA? These are the 43 citizen science projects that want to do real science