Evolution of the animal temperature sensor: The functional adaptation to environmental change
The animals on the earth have adapted themselves to the environmental temperature changes such as hot in deserts, or cold in the glacial epochs. However, the molecular mechanism for adaptation to thermal environments in the evolutionary process involving temperature sensors was not well understood. Professor Makoto Tominaga and Assistant Professor Shigeru Saito at The National Institute for Physiological Sciences (Okazaki Institute for Integrative Bioscience) demonstrate that the molecule called TRP channels, serve as temperature sensors in animals, sense different temperature ranges between mammals and western clawed frog (amphibians) even the same type of the TRP channels have been investigated. This observation indicates that the temperature sensors can dynamically change their temperature sensitivities to adapt to thermal environments in the evolutionary process. The report is published in American science magazine, PLoS Genetics (electronic edition).