HOW DO POISON FROGS NOT POISON THEMSELVES

EPIBATIDINE

• A neurotoxin
• That paralyses in small doses
• In large amounts will cause death (your lungs to stop working )

acetylcholine

• A neurotransmitter that controls muscle
• Binds to acetylcholine receptors
• Is replaced by epibatidine causing paralysis

WHERE DOES EPIBATIDINE COME FROM

• frogs get edibatidine by recycling some toxic materials in their diet.

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• The poison frogs change the acetylcholine receptors shape by moving amino acids so that epibatidine can not bond
• This should affect the way the acetylcholine receptors react to acetylcholine
• But It does not

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• and extra changes have made up for any affects of the anti-toxin changes
• In return the change made it harder for acetylcholine to attach

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• Could this Information help in medical hospitals or tranquilizing animals

CITATIONS

• Hamers, L. (2017, November 20). How these poison frogs avoid poisoning themselves. Retrieved January 11, 2018, from https://www.sciencenewsforstudents.org/article/how-these-poison-frogs-avoid...
• Tarvin, R. D., Borghese, C. M., Sachs, W., Santos, J. C., Lu, Y., O'Connell, L. A., . . . Zakon, H. H. (2017, September 22). Interacting amino acid replacements allow poison frogs to evolve epibatidine resistance. Retrieved January 11, 2018, from http://science.sciencemag.org/content/357/6357/1261.full?ijkey=Kmyt1TWdrgYQ...