Sentences with phrase «blenny venom»

The researchers ended up using a quirky but labor - intensive method for extracting blenny venom: they would pluck the little fish out of their tanks, dangle a cotton swab in front of them so that the blenny would bite the cotton swab, and then suspended the cotton swabs in a solution that drew out the venom (after putting the fish back in the tank).

When the researchers did a proteomic analysis of extracted fang blenny venom, they found three venom components — a neuropeptide that occurs in cone snail venom, a lipase similar to one from scorpions, and an opioid peptide.

Since the researchers used rodents for the pain test, they can't entirely rule out the possibility of blenny venom causing pain in fish, but it seems plausible that the neuropeptide and opioid components may cause a sudden drop in blood pressure, most likely leaving the blenny's attacker disorientated and unable to give chase.

Fang blenny venom, however, seems to have a very different effect on its victims.

«For the fang blenny venom to be painless in mice was quite a surprise,» says study co-author Bryan Fry of University of Queensland.

Instead, blenny venom causes the victim's blood pressure to plunge by almost 40 % for a short time, which in the wild might slow down a would - be predator (like grouper fish) long enough for the tiny blenny to escape.

Not exact matches

When predators attack, blennies on Pacific coral reefs bite back with a venom that makes the attackers so dizzy that they open their mouths to let the prey out

Yet when Casewell, Fry and colleagues put together an evolutionary family tree for the blennies, the one genus with both fangs and venom branched off amid four genera that are all fang and no toxins, Casewell, Fry and colleagues report in the April 24 Current Biology.

After a recent flurry of news that fang blennies mix an opioid in their venom, a question lingers: What do they need with fangs anyway?

Once some blennies evolved venom, «all these crazy selection pressures started coming in,» Fry says.

ON POINT The two big teeth in the lower jaw of this fang blenny (Meiacanthus grammistes) have a groove for venom delivery.

Another surprise from the study was the evidence suggesting that fang blenny fangs evolved before the venom.

Blenny fish venom most likely causes a sudden drop in blood pressure in would - be predators, such as grouper fish, that have been bitten by blennies, researchers report on March 30 in Current Biology.

Since blenny fish are only about two inches long, these «fangs» would be less than intimidating if not for the venom within.

Nonvenomous fang blennies and other small fish capitalize on the venom's success by mimicking venomous fang blennies» colors and patterns.