Freezing temperatures are no match for alligators. Recent images emerging from Texas and North Carolina show frozen ponds and swamps dotted with alligators.
Similar to animals that experience torpor, alligators are able to reduce their metabolism and heart rate to as little as three beats per minute to survive freezing temperatures. This torpor-like state is called brumation. Poking their snouts above the ice before it freezes, allows them to continue to breath and suspend their body in the ice. According to an interview posted on LiveScience, keepers at the Swamp Park in North Carolina refer to them as “gatorcicles”.
Weather permitting, alligators may emerge from their icy ‘beds’ to bask in the sun. With very little nutrient intake, brumating alligators may experience autophagy, a process that allows them to breakdown their cells to recover nutrients. A relatively recent study found that 19 of the 34 genes responsible for autophagy in alligators share over 85% amino acid similarity with those found in humans, and 29 of these genes share over 70% similarity (Hale et al., 2020).
These findings show that autophagy is a highly conserved process across species that allows organisms to recycle cells and prevent neurological and cardiovascular diseases. In fact, cancer, heart disease, autoimmune diseases, and neuropathies are associated with mutated or dysfunctional autophagy genes. Moreover, whereas some mutations may suppress tumors, others may promote tumor formation (Glick et al., 2010). Understanding how other species regulate autophagy, may lead to a better understanding of how to treat or prevent these diseases.
Sources:
YouTube
A Hale, M Merchant, M White. Detection and analysis of autophagy in the American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis). Journal of Experimental Zoology Part B: Molecular and Developmental Evolution. 334(3): 192-207, 2020.
D Glick, S Barth, KF Macleod. Autophagy: Cellular and molecular mechanisms. The Journal of Pathology. 221(1): 3-12, 2010.
Categories: Aging, Agriculture, Aquaculture, and Livestock, Comparative Physiology, Environment, Extreme Animals, Hibernation and Hypoxia, Illnesses and Injuries, Nature's Solutions
Tags: alligator, brumation, metabolism
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