Many people are acquainted with the story of The Frog Prince, the place a princess kisses a frog, and to her shock, it transforms right into a human prince.
In actuality, many frog species produce poison of their pores and skin, the results of which may vary from gentle nausea to dying, so this show of affection is mostly ill-advised. However what if the frog had discovered a extra uncommon solution to defend itself, one which left our heroine’s lips sealed by the kiss as a substitute?
Organic adhesives: A story as previous as slime
Whereas people primarily use artificial supplies to make issues sticky, our princely frog—like different glue-producing organisms—produces what is named a “organic adhesive.” These naturally secreted supplies are widespread amongst animals, and are sometimes important for his or her survival.
For instance, mussels and barnacles produce a kind of glue that completely cements them to the underwater surfaces they name residence, whereas different ocean-dwelling animals, resembling starfish, use a unique, rather more short-term sort of glue to assist them transfer round.
Again on land, essentially the most well-known instance is spider glue, generally used to create silk for prey seize. Nonetheless, our focus right here is on terrestrial vertebrates, the stickiest specimens being the toes of geckos and sure tree frogs. These are examples of “dry” and “moist” adhesion, that means that geckos follow surfaces with out truly producing something that resembles glue, whereas the toe pads of tree frogs are lined with a skinny layer of slime, or mucus.
Regardless of their apparent dissimilarities, each of a lot of these adhesion have been described as “self-cleaning,” and should assist us to develop artificial supplies that share this trait. Certainly, the ways in which completely different organic adhesives are formulated after which secreted usually contain wondrous feats of pure engineering.
In different circumstances, nonetheless, glue secretion has much less to do with complicated geometrical operations, and extra to do with discharging copious quantities of slime unexpectedly.
Sticky secretions: An unlikely protection mechanism
From conventional medication and shamanistic rituals to folks tales and myths, frogs and toads are culturally vital the world over. The frog’s poison glands are particularly outstanding, as they can be utilized to make weapons, therapies, and even hallucinogens.
Thus far, research on amphibian skin-secreted defenses have targeted on molecules that perform as toxins. Nonetheless, except for being purveyors of poison, a small variety of species (together with the world’s largest amphibian, the Chinese language big salamander) have give you a extra obscure (and far stickier) survival technique: glue.
Meet the tomato frog.
When confused, the animal’s pores and skin releases a thick fluid that turns into extraordinarily sticky inside seconds. From a frog’s perspective, this stress normally takes the type of an assault by a predator (or princess). The pace with which the viscous secretion—a sticky slime, mainly—turns right into a glue makes it practically inconceivable for a predator to ingest the frog, seemingly as a result of annoyance brought on by having its mouth and face coated with glue.
Whereas this tactic might sound crude and inelegant, it’s an efficient protection mechanism, because it provides the frog time to flee.
Retracing an evolutionary slime path
Though glue is a uncommon characteristic in frogs, it has advanced a number of occasions in species which are unfold throughout completely different continents. My just lately printed analysis explores the origins of this outstanding survival technique, and why it’s current in some frogs however not in others.
To reply these questions, we first wanted to determine the components chargeable for creating the stickiness of frog glue. We did this utilizing applied sciences starting from low-tech Lego bricks to high-tech microscopes that may enlarge on a nanoscale (a billionth of a meter).
Surprisingly, what we discovered is that the bottom components wanted to make this glue exist in virtually all animals, together with people, however solely amphibians have advanced the mandatory toolkit for turning them into glue. Even inside amphibians, solely a choose few species—ones that stay as far aside as Madagascar, Brazil and Australia—have truly gone on to develop this capacity.
In reality, we discovered that the Mozambique rain frog, which is separated from the tomato frog by about 100 million years of evolution, makes use of the identical base components and toolkit to create its personal adhesive secretion. Maybe essentially the most notorious use of this glue truly entails sticking male frogs to females, as Sir David Attenborough himself has attested.
From biology to biomimicry: A critically sticky surgical resolution
Whereas frog glue is fascinating, it’s also extraordinarily fast-acting and versatile, that means it has large potential for sensible functions. That is the place biomimetics is available in: a area that strives to imitate organic processes that nature has advanced over thousands and thousands of years.
Because of our analysis, we now know, for the primary time, precisely how glue is produced by a four-legged animal. Think about how medical adhesives impressed by frog glue can be utilized as surgical sealants: not solely is it robust and unhazardous, however it’s able to adapting and sticking to virtually any floor.
So the subsequent time you stumble throughout an unsuspecting frog, be light—keep in mind, it would simply maintain the important thing to at some point therapeutic your coronary heart.
This article by Shabnam Zaman, The Dialog was first printed by Phys.org on 18 September 2024. Lead Picture: Credit score: Pixabay/CC0 Public Area.
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