By Chris Gayomali
Marine mammals have all kind of marvelous adaptations to conduct a comfortable life sentence underwater , such as flippers and insulating fat . heavyweight even have centre that cansee in monochrome , which is especially valuable late beneath the surface where sunshine is at a premium .
But one of the whales ' more riveting adaptations is their enviable power to hold their breath underwater for up to an hour at a clock time . scientist know it has something to do with their myoglobin , a molecule in the rip that helps the body ’s muscles retain oxygen . In brute like cow and humans , myoglobin is bang for afford chassis its reddish undertone ; seals and whales , on the other hand , have extremely high myoglobin concentration that make their tissue paper look black .
Researcher Michael Berenbrink , a zoologist at the University of Liverpool , thought that was peculiar . " At eminent enough concentrations , [ proteins ] tend to stick together , " Berenbrinktells BBC News . When too many proteins bundle together , they become useless — dead weight .
So just how do thickly packed myoglobin molecules in aquatic mammals keep from sticking together?BBC News account :
The magic , plainly , is that the myoglobin of marine animate being is positively file , like one end of a magnet . Instead of clump together , the molecule repel one another away , ensuring the blood delay loose and lubricate .
The heavyweight ’s ability to hold its breathing spell is , in a way , an evolutionary one - two punch : ( 1 ) The high concentration of myoglobin let it to spend more metre underwater in between breaths , and ( 2 ) the myoglobin ’s positive charge ensures the protein do n’t cluster together and kill the animate being . Researchers say that mimicking this lifelike chemistry could have an impact in medical science , particularly in the way we perform human blood transfusion .
Berenbrink and his team even go so far as to reconstruct the myoglobin chronological succession of the whale ’s ascendent to nail when the evolutionary adjustment may have occurred . " If you give me a myoglobin sequence , I can severalize you if the animal is a good diver or not , " say Berenbrink . Natureexplains :
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