SALT LAKE CITY, Jan. 20 (UPI) — Cone snails are some of the world’s most unassuming poison dealers, none quite as venomous or inventive as the geographic cone snail (Conus geographus). The geography cone, responsible for many human deaths, has a trick is pulled right of a med school handout on diabetes.
As scientists recently found out, the sometimes-deadly snail has an unusual trick for sedating its prey and then eating it alive. A special form of insulin puts fish into a deep sleep, a so-called sugar coma.
Researchers at the University of Utah found that geography cones put out the unique insulin in order to send approaching fish into a stupor. Once zonked, the snail projects its cape-like false mouth over the fish — injecting it with another cocktail of toxins and reeling it in for consumption.
“This is a unique type of insulin. It is shorter than any insulin that has been described in any animal,” lead study author Baldomero M. Olivera, a biologist at Utah, explained in a recent press release. “We found it in the venom in large amounts.”
“It looks like the fish is completely narced,” Christopher Meyer, a cone snail expert at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, remarked to National Geographic. Meyer wasn’t directly involved in the study.
It’s the first time scientists have observed an animal using insulin in this way. For most animals, including humans, insulin is a hormone used to regulate metabolism. For a this cone snail species, it’s a weapon.
Researchers say the unique form of insulin could help scientists better understand the way humans use the hormone to regulate blood sugar and energy metabolism.
The study was published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
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