Squirming slowly along the ocean floor, sea cucumbers look like an easy target to hungry predators.
may be turned on only when an encroaching predator exerts a sufficiently large physical force directly onto the Cuvierian organ," the researchersThey traced the molecular pathway that triggers the organ's dramatic deployment and found that touching the animal's skin or piercing it with a needle, weakly activated the organ, where direct pressure didn't.
Genetic analysis revealed the tubules' membranes are formed from long, repeating sequences of amino acids, similar to those found in spider webs or silkworm threads. These proteins give the organ its high tensile strength, and while their repeating nature is familiar, the proteins themselves and their arrangements are unique.their original length, thanks to water pumping inside them from the sea cucumber's respiratory tree.
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