ArticlePLoS biology2018
Rapid evolution of a voltage-gated sodium channel gene in a lineage of electric fish leads to a persistent sodium current.
Article in PLoS biology, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers.
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Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed, 23 citations in OpenAlex.
- Article
- Neural evolution of complex motor behaviors: insights from Drosophila courtship song.Current opinion in neurobiology · 2025Review
- Quantifying Transcriptome Turnover on Phylogenies by Modeling Gene Expression as a Binary Trait.Molecular biology and evolution · 2025Article
- Normal locomotion in zebrafish lacking the sodium channel NaV1.4 suggests that the need for muscle action potentials is not universal.PLoS biology · 2025Article
- Differential expression of steroid-related genes across electrosensory brain regions in two sexually dimorphic species of electric knifefish.General and comparative endocrinology · 2024Review
- Neuromodulation and the toolkit for behavioural evolution: can ecdysis shed light on an old problem?The FEBS journal · 2024Review
- Ecologically mediated differences in electric organ discharge drive evolution in a sodium channel gene in South American electric fishes.Biology letters · 2024Article
- Neuroendocrine mechanisms contributing to the coevolution of sociality and communication.Frontiers in neuroendocrinology · 2023Review
- Transcriptome mining extends the host range of theVirus evolution · 2023Article
- Divergent cis-regulatory evolution underlies the convergent loss of sodium channel expression in electric fish.Science advances · 2022Article
- Advancing human disease research with fish evolutionary mutant models.Trends in genetics : TIG · 2022Review
- Vocal and Electric Fish: Revisiting a Comparison of Two Teleost Models in the Neuroethology of Social Behavior.Frontiers in neural circuits · 2021Review
- Comparative Transcriptome Analyses Reveal the Role of Conserved Function in Electric Organ Convergence Across Electric Fishes.Frontiers in genetics · 2019Article
- Eukaryotic Voltage-Gated Sodium Channels: On Their Origins, Asymmetries, Losses, Diversification and Adaptations.Frontiers in physiology · 2018Article
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Most weakly electric fish navigate and communicate by sensing electric signals generated by their muscle-derived electric organs. Adults of one lineage (Apteronotidae), which discharge their electric organs in excess of 1 kHz, instead have an electric organ derived from the axons of specialized spinal neurons (electromotorneurons [EMNs]). EMNs fire spontaneously and are the fastest-firing neurons known. This biophysically extreme phenotype depends upon a persistent sodium current, the molecular underpinnings of which remain unknown. We show that a skeletal muscle-specific sodium channel gene duplicated in this lineage and, within approximately 2 million years, began expressing in the spinal cord, a novel site of expression for this isoform. Concurrently, amino acid replacements that cause a persistent sodium current accumulated in the regions of the channel underlying inactivation. Therefore, a novel adaptation allowing extreme neuronal firing arose from the duplication, change in expression, and rapid sequence evolution of a muscle-expressing sodium channel gene.
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