After delivering a visitor lecture on sticklebacks, an unfamiliar fish caught Stanford College researcher David Kingsley’s eye. When he walked previous an aquarium on the Woods Gap Marine Biology Laboratory, an odd aquatic creature stopped him in his tracks.
“I did this big double take as a result of I appeared on this one tank, and there was one of many weirdest fish I’ve ever seen,” says Kingsley. “It had the physique of a fish, the wings of a fowl, and it was strolling alongside the underside of the tank on six legs. It nearly appeared like a centaur or one thing.”
Collection of Serendipity
That was the primary of three serendipitous moments that led a staff of biologists to grasp how the fish, referred to as a sea robin, makes use of its legs to seek out meals. Not solely do the legs have an acute sense of contact, however additionally they “put on” the piscine equivalents of style buds on their toes. The scientists report the genetic causes these unusual options exist in a Present Biology report.
Earlier than heading house to California, Kingsley loaded up his smartphone with papers concerning the sea robin. By the point he returned to Stanford, he determined to analyze how nature produced these curious traits.
The irony was, when Kingsley talks about the principle creature he research — the stickleback fish — he tends to give attention to how organisms lose capabilities over time. However he’s repeatedly been requested about how nature introduces novel traits. The ocean robin supplied the right alternative to discover that concept. So he and his lab started learning the ocean robin’s genome.
In the meantime, again on the East Coast, a Harvard group had additionally turn out to be fascinated by the ocean robin. Their major curiosity centered on how precisely the unusual creature hunted for meals on the ocean flooring. That group had heard from Massachusetts fisherman that the ocean robin was so good at discovering buried meals that different fish really adopted it.
Backside Feeders
The Harvard group needed to see simply how good the ocean robins have been at discovering dinner. “We simply put them in a tank, we put sand on the underside. We went to the grocery retailer. We acquired some mussels. We buried them. And the ocean robins discovered them instantly,” says Nicholas Bellono of Harvard. The fish carried out simply as effectively detecting capsules containing completely different scents.
The Harvard researchers then started asking themselves concerning the molecular biology behind this capacity. Sadly, the scientists weren’t as adept at figuring out key molecules as the ocean robin was at finding meals. “We have been simply completely failing,” says Bellono. “We couldn’t discover something as a result of we actually did not know the place to look.”
Luck Favors the Ready Thoughts
Then serendipity struck once more. The group ran out of fish, in order that they sought one other batch from Woods Gap. After they examined that group of fish’s food-finding capacity, the brand new college stored arising empty. “At first, I believed we tousled, like, perhaps we did one thing unsuitable within the experimental setup,” says Bellono.
They quickly found that they have been taking a look at two separate species of sea robins. “That meant there was a complete [other] factor to review, which isn’t simply what makes sea robins completely different from different fish, however what makes some sea robins completely different from different sea robins,” says Bellono.
Then, serendipitous second Quantity Three struck. The Harvard group acquired phrase {that a} postdoc from the Stanford lab had been visiting the MBL each summer season to work with sea robins. “We thought ‘effectively, if another person on the earth cares about these bizarre fish, we must always most likely work with them,” Bellono. The 2 groups complemented one another as a result of the Stanford group had experience in genetics and genomics, whereas the Harvard staff excelled at sensory capabilities, habits, and molecular biology.
After they in contrast genomes of the 2 completely different sea robin species, apparent variations jumped out. The species that excelled at discovering meals had genes that produced style receptors on its toes. The opposite didn’t.
Additional analyses revealed the genetic mechanisms that produced the profitable meals hunter’s sense of contact and style on their legs. The expertise serves as a reminder of why fundamental analysis is worth it. “I hope it serves as inspiration for folks to simply be curious concerning the world round them and attempt to perceive the way it works,” says Bellono.
It additionally emphasizes why science will be enjoyable and thrilling. The expertise gave Kingsley a “child within the sweet retailer” feeling. “And for a biologist, the child within the sweet retailer is likely to be a geneticist in an aquarium,” says Kingsley.
