A Sensor for “Animal Magnetism”
Before wondering what the roundworm’s burrowing orientation has to do with anything other than C. elegan’s existence, remember that the bestselling book Charles Darwin wrote during his lifetime was about earthworms. This piece describes a “fingerlike” dendrite at the end of a neuron which senses temperature, humidity, carbon dioxide level and the Earth’s magnetic field. Magnetic perception then influences whether the worm moves horizontally or vertically in the soil. According to researchers at the University of Texas at Austin, it is the TAX-4 cyclic nucleotide-gated ion channel in that fingerlike neuron. This is such an obvious selection advantage that other species (bats, birds, butterflies) must have a similar neuron. And, humans? MORE
Image Credit: Andrés Vidal-Gadea/University of Texas at Austin and GizMag.com