SPECIMEN 009 / DETAIL ARCHIVE

Electric eel sodium channels

Electrophorus electricus electric organ

The electric eel is not magic. It is stacked ion-channel engineering.

PLATE 009

protein / 92/100

Visual specimen record

Electric eel sodium channels

WHY IT MATTERS

Electric eel biology links genomics, evolution, neurobiology, and bioelectricity. Its electric organs show how modified muscle cells and ion-channel machinery can be organized into a high-voltage biological system.

Sources
4
Facts
4
Type
01
protein
Habitat
02
Amazon and Orinoco basin freshwater systems
Weirdness
03
92/100
Taxonomy
04
Chordata / Actinopterygii / Gymnotiformes / Gymnotidae

RECONSTRUCTED STORY

Signal Narrative

FIELD 01Electric eels turn muscle ancestry into voltage.

FIELD 02Their electric organs are built from electrocytes, cells stacked so small membrane voltages add up.

FIELD 03Voltage-gated sodium channels help trigger the fast electrical event that makes each cell discharge.

FIELD 04Genomic studies showed electric organs evolved by changing a muscle program, not by inventing electricity from scratch.

FIELD 05The shock is an anatomy of ion channels, tissue specialization, and timing.

The electric eel is not magic. It is stacked ion-channel engineering.