BIOL 130 Final Project

Description:

Our final project assignment in this class was to read a paper of our choosing that is relevant to the field of Neuroscience and present about it as a chalk talk. My partner, Jesus Segovia, and I decided to read Nicholas Bellono’s paper Molecular tuning of electroreception in sharks and skates.

Main Takeaways:

1. Sharks and Skates detect changes in external electric fields using electrosensory cells contained inside dermal pores around their rostrums. The cells can be found in specialized vessels known as Ampullae of Lorenzini.
2. These electrosensory cells use voltage-gated potassium channels to depolarize in response to electric stimulus that travels from the environment into the Ampullae of Lorenzini.
3. Electrosensory cells are said to be specialized variants of auditory hair cells.
4. Shark electrosensory cells are specialized to generate all-or-nothing action potentials similar to human hair cells that rely on mechanical tuning mechanisms via the cochlea.
5. Skate electrosensory cells are specialized to generate voltage-oscillating action potentials similar to turtle hair cells that rely on electrical tuning mechanisms to capture high-resolution frequency information.
6. These modifications stem from the behavioral niches of each organism.
7. Shark electrosensory cells are hypothesized to be specialized to aid in prey capture as Sharks rely on electroreception to find prey in close proximity after attacking.
8. Skate electrosensory cells are hypothesized to be specialized to aid communication with conspecifics where specific low-frequency signals are used largely.
9. Thus, Sharks require all-or-nothing responses to detect the slightest changes in electric field that are generated by moving organisms. Skates require electrically tuned electrosensory cells to resonate maximally for specific low-frequencies that would be important in communicating with conspecifics.

Here are my research notes

Here were some of my talking points for the talk

Acknowledgements:

I want to thank my professor Kyobi Skutt-Kakaria for assigning our final project as a chalk talk. This was a new experience and I enjoyed presenting research in this format.