Living only in Mexico City's Xochimilco lake and named after the Aztec god Xolotl, this interesting amphibian salamander species has caught the attention of scientists with its incredible regeneration ability. This creature, which overturns biological rules such as metamorphosis, can survive by reproducing many parts of its body after any injury.
Axolotl, which is about 30 cm long from tail to head and weighs about 300 grams, always remains "immature", that is, immature, without maturation, unlike other amphibians. Since they do not undergo metamorphosis to be able to live on land by breathing through lungs like other amphibians, they continue their lives with more juvenile features such as fins, tails and preferring to live in water. Axolotls have a genome containing about 32 billion base pairs, according to a study published in the journal Nature. That's about 10 times the size of the human genome. Axolotls, which had the largest known genome until recently, lost that title when it was discovered that lungfish had a genome containing 43 billion base pairs.
Axolotls with these interesting features have continued to amaze the scientific world since they were first brought to Paris in 1863. They have the ability to regenerate extremities, eye and heart tissues, some parts of their brain and spinal cord after any injury. They can also easily accept transplants from other animals without any serious rejection reactions. With all these interesting features, axolotls are a species that continues to attract the attention of the scientific world in terms of finding new drugs in the treatment of various diseases and ensuring tissue compatibility in organ transplantations.
Source: sciencefocus.com/nature/what-is-an-axolotl/
📩 17/01/2023 20:36
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