Naked Mole Rat Flashcards
What traits make NMR unique/good to study
- Live long
- Cancer resistance
- Poikilothermy
- Resistant to acid/capsaicin
- Anoxia resistant
- Eusocial (highly social)
What makes breeding & gestation unique?
Gestation approx. 70 days (as compared to 21 days in mice)
Do not show reduction in fertility with advanced age
Live communally w/ single large breeding female or queen
How do NMRs differ from humans in terms of longevity?
Higher average lifespan compared to weight
Relatively stable hazard rate across lifespan (hazard rate increases more or less exponentially in humans)
What traits make NMRs cancer resistant?
- Stable epigenome
- Highly sensitive to loss of tumor suppressor genes -→ apoptosis
- HMM-HA (protein that gives their skin its elastic properties)
How does HMM-HA lead to cancer resistance?
Leads to increased CD44 → p16 or pALT activation → ECI & prevention of hyperplasia
Added extra protection from ROS damage
Complete mechanism is unknown, but is a promising research direction
Why are NMRs interesting to study in pain research/useful for pain research?
Are insensitive to capsaicin & low pH due to a single amino acid mutation in EKE motif of Nav1.7, which creates a slight negative charge in channel
SCN9A codes for Nav1.7 (which is expressed in large quantities in nociceptive pain neurons at DRG, trigeminal ganglion, and sympathetic ganglion neurons
In most animals, acids & capsaicin cause greater depolarization of nociceptors than inhibition of the Nav1.7 block → depolarization of nociceptors → sensation of pain
In NMR, depolarization & inhibition are balance → no AP → no sensing of heat or acid
Heat sensing is mediated by TRPV1, TRPV2, TRPV3, and TREK-1 receptors
Acid is detected by TRPV1, ASIC, and DRASIC
which trait of NMRs has an important implication for stroke?
During anoxia/hypoxia, NMR brains can also use fructose as an energy source
NMR subvert inhibition that usually occurs of Phospho-fructo-kinase (PFK) somehow
What kind of survival rate do NMRs have in hypoxia and anoxia conditions as compared to mice?
100% compared to 0%
What is eusociality?
An extreme form of cooperation involving:
- Reproductive division of labor
- Overlap of at least 2 generations
- Cooperative care of the young
What is the most commonly used NMR vocalization?
Soft chirps
Used as breeding call, encode individual identity, and encode colony identity
What are the biggest challenges of using NMR for research?
- Lack of transgenics
- Long reproductive cycle
- Limited viral, in vivo imaging tech
- Limited range of working antibodies
- Require colony structure (may be difficult in a lab environment)
- Long lifespan
How to circumvent issues/challenges in studying NMR
- Omics
- Expansion of interspecies comparisons
- In vitro experiments
- Detailed behavioral tracking + machine learning
Also increased possibilities w/ new gene tech like CRISPR and Cas9
