A team of scientists led by Mitsumasa Koyanagi from Osaka University (Japan) successfully conducted an experiment on the concentration of light-sensitive nematode worms. This area of science is called optogenetics, it is part of the direction of sensory systems. Japanese researchers have experienced “hacking” the nervous system of nematodes and endowing this creature with the missing spo.
The nervous system of nematodes is extremely simple, it is well studied, and the genome of these worms has been sequenced numerically. This makes them an object for simulating various situations. In an experimental experiment, opsins were introduced into the nervous system of nematodes – light-sensitive proteins that can respond to changes in lighting by generating neural impulses. In fact, optogenetics “connected” two optical sensors of biological origin to the nematode.
One opsin borrowed from mosquitoes reacts to light as a stimulus, causing the body to avoid it. The second opsin was the son-in-law and the lampreys, it was imaged by the motor neurons – about finding the nematmet. The first opsin was tuned to green light, the second to ultraviolet radiation. Koda chenyaly
The experiment showed that the implanted tissues did not degrade in a foreign source, so new signaling systems can be created on their basis. This is important for the development of science and the study of the sensors of human existence, but also optogenetics may eventually help restore lost vision to its people. Experiments on rodents have already proven that implanting opsins in blind individuals restores their ability to respond. light.
Source: Tech Cult
