Department of Biology, National Center for Behavioral Genomics, Volen Center for Complex Systems, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA 02458, USA.
Sci Signal. 2010 Jun 22;3(127):pe22. doi: 10.1126/scisignal.3127pe22.
The pit organs of pit vipers, pythons, and boas are remarkable sensory devices that allow these snakes to detect infrared radiation emitted by warm-blooded prey. It has been theorized that this capacity reflects the pit organ's exceptional sensitivity to subtle fluctuations in temperature, but the molecules responsible for this extreme thermal resolution have been unknown. New evidence shows that pit organs respond to temperature using the warmth-activated cation channel TRPA1 (transient receptor potential ankyrin 1), a finding that provides a first glimpse of the underlying molecular hardware. The properties of these snake TRPA1s raise intriguing questions about the mechanisms responsible for the exceptional sensitivity of many biological thermoreceptors and about the evolutionary origins of these warmth-activated TRP channels.
响尾蛇、蟒蛇和蚺的颊窝是一种非凡的感觉器官，使这些蛇类能够探测到温血猎物发出的红外线。人们推测，这种能力反映了颊窝对温度细微波动的异常敏感性，但负责这种极端热分辨率的分子尚不清楚。新的证据表明，颊窝通过温度激活阳离子通道 TRPA1（瞬时受体电位锚蛋白 1）来对温度做出反应，这一发现首次揭示了潜在的分子硬件。这些蛇类的 TRPA1 的特性提出了一些有趣的问题，涉及许多生物热敏感受器的异常敏感性的机制，以及这些温度激活的 TRP 通道的进化起源。
